Ambassador of Switzerland Lied: Foreign Min

"Bangladesh government did not ask for any information from the Swiss government about individual's money in Swiss bank" -Foreign Minister Dr. AK Abdul Momen has claimed that this statement of Switzerland's ambassador Nathalie Chuard is not true. He said the ambassador lied.

He made this comment while talking to some journalists at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday (August 11).

Journalists want to know from the foreign minister that Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal and many officials of NBR said that the amount of money of Bangladeshis in Swiss banks is increasing. Bangladesh government asked the Swiss bank for information but they did not give it. But their ambassador says that the Bangladesh government did not ask for specific information. In response, the foreign minister said that it was a lie. I was told that by Bangladesh Bank Governor and Finance Secretary. They told me they asked for the information first. On the contrary, Switzerland has not given any reply.

Momen said, I asked the governor of Bangladesh Bank; They said, no, we have already asked for the information, but they did not respond. I said, then you make it public. Because you should not get away with such lies.

In response to the question of whether the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will contact the Swiss Embassy if the statement of the ambassador is false, he said, "Our governor or the Ministry of Finance should first give a statement on this matter, and then we will tell them."

It is to be noted that on Wednesday at an event of the Diplomatic Correspondents Association of Bangladesh (DCAB), the journalists asked the Swiss ambassador, did the government make any request for information on money laundering? In response, the ambassador said that they have not received any such specific request.

The ambassador said that Switzerland is committed to following international standards and we have certain rules and agreements to exchange such information with any country according to international standards. So we have to figure out some such mechanism. We can work with the government on this.

Meanwhile, on Thursday (August 11), the High Court asked why the Bangladesh government did not ask the country's government for any specific information about money deposited in various Swiss banks. The ACC and the state side have been asked to report it by next Sunday. The bench of Justice Mo Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Khizir Hayat gave this order on its own initiative.