Tunisian authorities are determined to confiscate the assets owned by the country’s fugitive dictator and his relatives outside the country, Press TV reports.

Following the January 2011 revolution in Tunisia, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his clan, who are believed to own billions of dollars in assets in Europe, North America and in the Arab countries, fled the country.

“It is difficult to estimate the real value of the assets of the ousted president. He has been stealing for than 23 years. The dictator’s clan has assets everywhere we are trying to confiscate,” said Najib Hnen, the president of the Confiscation Committee.

“We respect international laws but we need more collaboration from the West and the Arab countries,” he urged.

Hnen believes that the clan of the ousted president had an illegal foreign network which facilitated the purchase of assets abroad.

“The illegal network is protected by some foreign countries. They have really complicated our task. We are going through an economic crisis and we need the money and the assets stolen by the former president,” he said, highlighting the difficulty of the retrieval of the assets purchased with the money of the Tunisian people.

International lawyer Hedi Hechmi, who has worked on many confiscation cases, describes the assets of Ben Ali and his family as a screen to cover a money laundering system backed by Western and Arab countries.

Observers believe Tunisia will be unable to recover the stolen money if the collaboration between the Confiscation Committee and foreign countries does not develop into a real partnership that serves the interest of the people.

“Many foreign and Arab countries know that money laundering is illegal but they protect the system to preserve their interests. Ben Ali has assets in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Canada, and America. It is impossible to confiscate anything if they refuse to collaborate,” Hechmi stated.

While the Tunisian government continues its efforts to return the Tunisian assets, Western and Arab countries appear reluctant to help the legal process after the revolution.