KARACHI, Feb 14: The Swiss government is not party (in the legal) proceedings against some political personalities of this country. The Swiss courts are always totally dependent on tangible evidences provided by the concerned governments in money-laundering cases.

This was stated by the Swiss Consul General in Karachi Julius F. Anderegg while addressing members of the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs (PIIA) on Tuesday at a meeting presided by its Chairman Fatehyab Ali Khan.

Replying to a question in the context of the ongoing investigations involving a former Pakistani prime minister by a Swiss court, Mr Anderegg said: “We are not a party and have no access to court files. The matter is between the parties concerned.”

He said that when requesting legal assistance, a foreign prosecuting agency should offer some tangible evidence of the crime committed and that proceeds thereof were actually deposited in Switzerland.

This is not always easy… Swiss diplomats quite often get to hear fantastic stories of ‘massive loots’ which the ousted politicians would supposedly stash away in Swiss banks. But the foreign authorities are not always in a position to give any further elaboration or clue.

With regard to the corruption cases involving the so-called ‘politically exposed persons’ and money-laundering, the Swiss diplomat pointed at floating of huge amounts of illegal money, harvested by means of organized crime or corruption practices. Switzerland, he said, had developed its own domestic strategy to keep such money away.

The crimes for which legal assistance was demanded must also be punishable in Switzerland, he said, emphasizing that these included the most common crimes, except mere tax evasion, which was not regarded a crime but an administrative offence in Switzerland.

Switzerland, of course, does not tolerate the abuse of its financial system by terrorists for the commission of criminal acts, he said.

Mr Anderegg said there was no bank secrecy in Switzerland in the cases of money-laundering, organized crime or criminal activity and terrorism. He claimed that because of its strict laws, Switzerland was neither an offshore financial place, nor a tax haven since it withheld at source 35 per cent tax on earnings.

The Swiss diplomat, nevertheless, said that despite all precautions, criminal money might still be seeping into a banking system on guard. “Yet, as Swiss government clearly wants to avoid that Switzerland lends itself as a sanctuary for ill-gotten money that Swiss bankers connive with criminals, it offers legal assistance to foreign crime investigators under usual internationally accepted terms.”

He said it was wrong to assume that in Switzerland, one could deposit money anonymously. A Swiss banker always must know his real customer who might not necessarily be the person acting upfront, but the one actually controlling the money.

Earlier, Anwar Jamal Kidwai spoke on the global phenomenon of money- laundering and Pakistani laws.