Swiss businessman in Gaddafi row "leaving Libya": lawyer (1st Lead)

Feb 22, 2010, 12:42 GMT

Tripoli - Rachid al-Hamdani, one of two Swiss businessmen trapped in Libya since July 2008, is leaving the country for Tunisia, his lawyer, Salih al-Zahaf, told the German Press Agency dpa Monday.

Relations between Switzerland and Libya have soured for the past two years since police in Geneva questioned Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi's son, Hannibal, and his wife following a complaint that they had abused domestic staff at their hotel.

Soon after, Libya prevented the two Swiss businessmen from leaving the country, and subsequently tried them on visa violations.

Al-Hamdani's departure from the Swiss Embassy in Tripoli followed a Libyan ultimatum threatening reprisals if the Swiss did not hand over the pair that have been sheltering in the embassy by 1000 GMT.

Al-Zahaf, who is also acting as the lawyer for Max Goldi, the other Swiss businessman, said he did not know Goldi's whereabouts.

Earlier this month, an appeals court overturned al-Hamdani's sentence to 16 months in prison on visa charges, and reduced Goldi's sentence to four months.

Libyan Foreign Minister Mousa Kousa summoned ambassadors from EU countries on Sunday night to demand they put pressure on Switzerland to hand over Goldi to Libyan police and to let al-Hamdani leave the country by midday Monday, Libya's official JANA news agency reported.

'Procedures will be taken if the embassy does not do what is required by the deadline,' Koussa said.

'The Swiss embassy is deliberately violating the law and international conventions through its continued 'detention' of the two,' the foreign minister charged. '(The Swiss) are deliberately escalating the crisis.'

The diplomatic dispute over the fate of the two businessmen escalated last week when a Libyan official said the country would stop issuing travel visas to nationals of 25 European countries.

Last week a senior Libyan official told a Tripoli newspaper that Switzerland had drawn up a list of more than 180 Libyan officials to be banned from entering Switzerland, one of the 25 countries that make up the Schengen zone.

The official reportedly threatened retaliatory measures from Libya.

Switzerland in November asked the 25 European countries that make up the Schengen area to restrict visas to Libyan passport holders.

Following that request, Libyan Prime Minister Baghadadi al- Mahmoudi and other senior officials were denied Schengen visas, a refusal that Libya's deputy prime minister, Khalid Kaim, blamed on the Swiss.

Italy, which has close business ties with Libya, protested the Swiss visa restrictions last week, saying Switzerland was holding Schengen countries 'hostage' in its dispute over the two businessmen.

A Swiss government spokesman said there would be no change in its visa procedures for Libyan nationals.