Swiss businessman in Gaddafi row to serve jail sentence (Roundup)

Feb 22, 2010, 14:04 GMT

Tripoli - Max Goldi, one of two Swiss businessmen trapped in Libya since 2008, has left the Swiss Embassy in Tripoli to serve four months in prison, Libya's foreign ministry announced Monday.

Relations between Switzerland and Libya have soured since July 2008, when 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.

Khaled Kaim, secretary general of the Libyan foreign ministry, said Goldi had been transferred to the custody of Libyan police, and that he would have the right to appeal his sentence again.

Rachid al-Hamdani, the other Swiss businessman who had been sheltering in the Embassy since 2008, also left the Swiss embassy in Tripoli on Monday, traveling by land to Tunisia, his lawyer, Salih al-Zahaf, told the German Press Agency dpa.

Their departure from the Swiss Embassy in Tripoli followed a Libyan ultimatum threatening reprisals if the Swiss did not hand over the pair by 1000 GMT.

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 warned.

'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.

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.