As tax havens increasingly co-operate with international law, Haiti's 'Baby Doc' Duvalier is the latest to have his money seized
It is 23 years since "Baby Doc" Duvalier was forced out of power in Haiti; but in the next few weeks, a court in Lausanne, Switzerland will decide whether the kleptocratic dictator can finally get his hands on 7m Swiss francs (£4.2m) that has been frozen in a Swiss bank account since 1986, while the country he and his father ruled for more than 30 years endured their grim legacy of poverty and political turmoil.
Haiti's government has requested a "mutual legal assistance proceeding", asking the Swiss to confiscate the assets – and the drawn-out process should reach its final stage before Christmas, in the Swiss supreme court.
"The aim for the Haitian government is to say, 'Look, it doesn't pay in the end'," says Valentin Zellweger, deputy director of Switzerland's Directorate of Public International Law, who has been pursuing the case. "We had excellent co-operation with the Haitian government: it was this which allowed us to go as far as we did."
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