HE Justice Minister Highlights Arab Forum on Asset Recovery

Doha, September 11 (QNA) - Minister of Justice, HE Hassan bin Abdullah Al- Ghanem, has highlighted the key importance of the Arab Forum on Asset Recovery and its role for aiding the arab spring countries which are passing through a period of establishing free, democratic and tolerant communities , and praised meantime the giant role qatar plays in this regard. Speaking to Qatar News Agency (QNA) Tuesday on the sidelines of the first such a forum which kicked off at the St. Regis Doha Hotel earlier Tuesday morning, HE Al- Ghanem underlined the significance of such a pivotal issue which the conferees would mainly focus their attention since such a sensitive issue has witnessed lots of efforts which have not taken an official form so far . ''Now these efforts have become official and have their own solicitor appointed on part of the UN to recover these assets.'' said HE Al Ghanem who added that there would be a sort of coordination among the ad-hoc groups which would set an agenda for the issue and discuss the optimal mechanism for recovering these assets. HE the Justice Minister was quoted by QNA as saying that the grand efforts rest with the big countries that are considered safe havens for these funds , the matter which makes it imperative to impose certain commitments and obligations on these countries to help resolve such a critical and complicated matter. Elaborating HE Al Ghanem said the conference should tackle several points inter-alia the legislations which should be changed in several countries so as to make easy and flexible the task of the attorney general to recover these assets. HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani who patronized the opening of the Arab Forum on Asset Recovery, which kicked off at the St. Regis Doha Hotel earlier Tuesday, stressed in his address on the occasion that the issue of stolen assets from countries around the world , took a high priority on the international agenda, especially from the Arab Spring countries, which strive to recover their stolen national funds to serve their peoples. The absence of the international solidarity in the prosecution of such offenses had a significant impact in the aggravation of this phenomenon and the worsening of its terrible effects on the economies of many countries, HH the Emir told the audience attending the first such a fourm . HH Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani also said that achieving the noble goals of the Forum requires concerted international efforts to make a joint effort in order to support the national efforts by relevant countries and provide technical, legal and institutional frameworks to address this phenomenon, stressing that action that had been taken by the international community is an important step in this direction. HE Minister of Justice Hassan bin Abdullah Al- Ghanem, said in his statement to QNA that the international community highly evaluated the gigantic efforts exerted on part of the State of Qatar under the leadership of HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani for the recovery of these stolen assets. '' Such a matter meantime has clarified position of Qatar and its attitude for combating corruption and efforts the State of Qatar has been exerting over the recent years via relevant conferences held and the Anti-Corruption Agreement signed at the regional and international levels,'' said HE Al- Ghanem. HE the Minister of Justice further stressed that Qatar would exert utmost efforts for recovering any assets stolen from any of the Arab Spring Countries. Referring to the cooperation among all world countries concerning the recovery of stolen assets , the Qatari Justice Minister made clear that working groups would be formed during the conference to strenuously and actively act to restore and recover all stolen assets to the deserved peoples of the Arab Spring Countries. The aforesaid working groups would act to collect acute information abouts these assets and there would be a sort of cooperation between these groups and the major countries that are considered safe havens for recovering these funds and stolen assets. Qatar, HE the Justice Minister told QNA that Qatar has exerted mammoth efforts to side by the Arab Spring Countries and would continue supporting these countries for further development , and referred to the recent visit HE HE Qatar's Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor Al Thani , paid to Egypt and the firm and principled stand of the Qatari economy to support and consolidate its Egyptian counterpart with depositing two billion US dollars in the Central Bank of egypt (CBE) for this purpose . '' There would be more gigantic projects in future in this regard, HE the justice minister told QNA . (END)