MONTREAL: Police searched the offices of a Montreal lawyer for ousted Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's brother-in-law for evidence he hid money for the family, court documents showed Wednesday.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police rummaged through lawyer Donald Kattan's office in the posh district of Westmount earlier in the month, according to a search warrant. It was not clear what, if anything, was found.

Court documents obtained by AFP outline suspicions that Kattan failed to notify authorities of Ben Ali family assets held in Canada that would be seized under the new Freezing Assets of Corrupt Regimes Act.

Ben Ali's regime was toppled by mass protests on January 14, 2011.

The new Tunisian government asked Ottawa to freeze and extradite the holdings of Ben Ali's millionaire brother-in-law Belhassen Trabelsi, who flew on a private jet to Montreal on January 20 and requested asylum.

Between March and November, Kattan "voluntarily did not communicate without delay to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police the existence of assets in his possession or under his control and that, to his knowledge, belong to a member of a corrupt regime or their family," said the court documents.

During the same period, Kattan and Trabelsi are also alleged to have transferred or spent funds linked to the Ben Ali regime, police said.

The court documents cite US$1.4 million transferred from a Lebanese bank to Kattan, purportedly to buy property in Canada.