GENEVA (AFP)--Swiss authorities on Thursday lifted a 12-year freeze on nearly $7 million in assets the late Zairean dictator Mobutu Sese Seko held in Switzerland, allowing their return to his family.
The Swiss foreign ministry said it was reluctantly releasing the 7.7 million francs ($6.7 million ) after a final supreme court ruling this week spelt the end of the long legal battle.
"The foreign ministry deplores this outcome, which ends 12 years of blockage during which all possible solutions were attempted," it said in a statement.
Swiss authorities had repeatedly reimposed a temporary freeze on Mobutu's fortune since 1997 amid suspicions the money was siphoned off from public assets in Zaire, now Congo.
"There is no other option but to lift the measures blocking these assets," the foreign ministry said.
Banks and other parties in the case were informed about the move on Wednesday through their lawyers.
Officials had sought since 1997 to encourage successor authorities in Congo to take action through Swiss courts to recover the money.
But by the time full legal action from Kinshasa came through in January, Swiss courts ruled that it fell under a statute of limitations.
Mobutu came to power in a 1965 coup, five years after the central African nation gained independence from Belgium.
He ruled Zaire for 32 years, plunging the country into a long economic crisis marked by state corruption.
He was overthrown in May 1997 by Laurent Kabila, the father of the current president Joseph, and died of cancer a few months later while in exile in Morocco.
Swiss authorities have said they also tried, unsuccessfully, to encourage Mobutu's heirs to relinquish their share of the money.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
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