GENEVA, (Reuters) – Switzerland’s top court ordered  yesterday that some 7.7 million Swiss francs ($7.11 million) of  assets of the late Zairean leader Mobutu Sese Seko be unfrozen,  clearing the way for their return to his heirs.

The move is likely to embarrass the government, which is  trying to keep Switzerland off an international blacklist of  financial centres whose tax rules facilitate money laundering.

“The banks will be informed that these funds have now been  unblocked,” a foreign ministry spokeswoman said in answer to an  enquiry.

The Swiss government initially froze the funds in 1997 at  the request of the African state, now named the Democratic  Republic of the Congo, and extended the freeze in 2008 to allow  a lawyer representing Congo to launch a case to block the funds.

But the public prosecutor rejected the case, arguing that  under Switzerland’s statute of limitations people surrounding  Mobutu, who died in 1997, could no longer be considered a  criminal organisation.