Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Libya withdrew more than CHF5 billion in assets held in Swiss bank accounts in 2008, wire service ATS reports, in a story carried by several Swiss papers. The sharp scaledown in holdings plus the fact that the new Swiss charge d’affaires has not been able allowed to present his credentials in Tripoli could mean that Libya is carrying out threats it made in July 2008 after Hannibal Qadaffi, the son of the country’s leader, was arrested in Geneva. In October 2008 the Libyan wire service published a report saying that Libya was removing the cash it had in Swiss accounts, which it estimated to be CHF7 billion.

The bank withdrawals left little more than CHF 6oo million, a drop of 89 percent of Libya’s holdings in Swiss banks, but Swiss Foreign Affairs Department spokesperson Georg Farago told ATS that it is an insignificant amount, 0.3 percent, of foreign holdings in Swiss Banks. The information about Libya’s holdings was published in February 2009 as part of the Swiss National Bank’s (SNB) annual report, “Banks in Switzerland 2008″, which details domestic and foreign banks’ activities during the year.

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