Switzerland rejects a request by Barazan al-Takriti children to free their assets

The state secretariat for economy affairs in Switzerland said that Switzerland refused in January the release of a large sum of the assets of four of relatives of the former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who asked the Swiss authorities to unfreeze their assets so that they can use them.

The secretariat announced on Tuesday that the value of required sums are "very large" while the complainers stressed that the frozen assets "contain relatively modest assets."

Ali al-Tikriti, Saddam's nephew, who has been in Geneva since 1987 started in 2003 talks with Bern to release parts of the assets frozen in Switzerland. His request also includes his brother Muhammad who was recently arrested in Jordan and his two sisters.

According to one of their lawyers Marc Henzlin in Geneva, the complainers from al-Tikriti family are in need of the money for financing their study and defending their father Barazan al-Tikriti, half brother of Saddam Hussein, who is currently held by the Americans.