GENEVA, June 16 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The U.S. attorney, who previously helped secure over a billion dollars in repayment to Holocaust survivors, plans to present Monday a class action lawsuit in the United States against Switzerland's two biggest banks on behalf of victims of South Africa's former Apartheid regime, the Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung said on Sunday.

Attorney Ed Fagan, who played a key role in compensation claims against Swiss banks by Holocaust survivors, will initiate the lawsuit with a court in Manhattan, his partner in Switzerland Norbert Gschwend confirmed to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

It demands payments from UBS and Credit Suisse banks of at least 80 billion Swiss francs ($51.3 billion, 54 billion euros).

The banks are accused of having helped keep the apartheid regime in power through a program of debt rescheduling, despite international sanctions.

Further class action lawsuits are planned in the United States against U.S. and European financial institutions and companies that they accuse of profiteering during apartheid, a press release said.

Until now, 14 relatives of victims of the former regime in South Africa are involved in the class action, the newspaper said.

Fagan is being supported by South African human rights lawyer Dumisa Ntsebeza, who will coordinate the action.

"The regime would never have survived so long if it had not gone on being supported after 1985 by firms whose only goal was profit," he said in an interview with the SonntagsZeitung.

The newspaper added that a call center would open in South Africa on Monday to enable further possible plaintiffs to join the class action. Fagan will be in Zurich on Monday when press conferences are planned for Switzerland and Soweto simultaneously.

UBS spokeswoman Vesna Carter said the bank had as yet no knowledge of the class action, and added, "We are convinced there is no basis" for such a suit.

Credit Suisse spokeswoman Claudia Kraaz commented, "While we have received no notice of any suit, attaching responsibility to Credit Suisse Group for the injustices of the apartheid regime would obviously not only be preposterous but unsubstantiated by the facts."

"Credit Suisse Group operated at all times according to all applicable laws and the Swiss government's regulations for doing business with South Africa," she added.

Switzerland, which is due to officially become a member of the United Nations in the coming months, did not take part in the U.N. sanctions regime against apartheid, except for the embargo on arms sales.