Rashid Hamdani, left and Max Goeldi, right, at the Swiss embassy in Tripoli in 2009
Tripoli, Libya (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss government remains officially silent but news reports from journalists in Tripoli, including a Reuters reporter, say that Swiss businessman Max Goeldi has surrendered to Libya authorities, to begin a four-month prison sentence. The Swiss will ask for clemency, and if it is granted, Human Rights Watch says, this would be a sign that the political crisis is over between Switzerland and Libya.
Libyan security forces surrounded the Swiss embassy in Tripoli after giving Switzerland a deadline to hand over Goeldi, who has been staying at the embassy. The second Swiss businessman held by Libya but whose charges were recently dropped, Rashid Hamdani from the Lake Geneva region, appears to have been allowed to leave the embassy and is reported to have traveled to Tunisia by car.
Background, GenevaLunch
Links to other sites: Al Jazeera, Amnesty International, Le Temps (Fre), TSR (Fre)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland’s woes with Libya continue this week, with Tripoli postponing the trials of two Swiss businessmen. The two are to stand trial for visa and tax irregularities, Libya has said. They were arrested shortly after the arrest in Geneva in July 2008 of Hannibal Qadaffi, son of the country’s leader. Libya in early January issued a list of reasons why the son should not have been arrested; it continues to argue, as it did in 2008, that he should have received diplomatic immunity.
The son is reported 6 January by Swiss media to have hosted singer Beyoncé for New Year’s Eve festivities at the Nikki Beach Club in Saint-Barthélemy, the Antilles, a week after he avoided police charges in Britain.
Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay said in Geneva Tuesday 8 December that Libya should release two men detained there since July 2008, calling their detention “unfair” and an abuse of their rights.
Pillay, speaking ata news conference in Geneva, said, “I think the detention of the two Swiss businessmen appears to be a violation because they were detained in custody for a long time before the government of Libya announced that they were now subject to judicial proceedings for tax evasion. Their detention seems to be unfair and there has been no proper explanation for them. They appear to be victims of a state level dispute between Libya and Switzerland and should in my view be released as soon as possible. Individuals should not be made to suffer because of bad relations between states.”
The two men were detained shortly after Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s son Hannibal was arrested in Geneva in 2008.
Background stories, GenevaLunch
Links to other sites: PressTV, Iran, Reuters Alertnet, UN Human Rights Commissioner
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss government has suspended its 20 August 2009 agreement with Libya designed to improve relations and is restricting visas issued to Libyans. The Federal Council (cabinet) noted in a press release Wednesday 4 November that Tripoli has refused all collaboration and that “the two Swiss citizens, who were taken in violation of international law, are still being held in an unknown area. The Libyan authorities refuse to allow anyone to visit them.”
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Details are surfacing slowly but steadily in the strange saga of the two Swiss men held by the Libyan government and Switzerland’s efforts to bring them home. The latest wrinkle is that the Swiss government has confirmed media reports from Wednesday 9 September that one of the two has had private contacts with the family of the Libyan prime minister and that he is living some 200 km from Tripoli, but reports in regularly to the Swiss embassy. The other man, ABB employee Max Goeldi, has opted to live at the embassy, and he has accepted the embassy’s offer to give him small amounts of work to do to fill his time.
Earlier media reports and government information indicated that the two men have been living at the Swiss embassy in Tripoli.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The fate of two Swiss businessmen held in Libya continues to cause debate in Switzerland. A foreign relations committee of the lower house of parliament Tuesday 8 September examined the letter sent by Libya that had reportedly promised the release of the men by the end of August. They remain in Libya and Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz has come under pressure from politicians and the media to insist that Libya keeps its part of the contract that should bring the men home and set up an independent commission to investigate the arrest in July 2008 of Hannibal Qadaffi and his wife. Neue Zuercher Zietung interviewed Libya’s vice president for foreign affairs, Khaled Kaim, who spoke of a misunderstanding concerning the language of the letter (see letter in full, below).
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss public radio, RSR, reports that Libya is asking for CHF430,000 as a downpayment for the return of each of two businessmen who have been held in the country for over a year. Bern has not confirmed the information.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Libya’s government has signed the contract drawn up 20 August between Switzerland and Libya, TSR, Swiss television, reports Jana, the official Libyan news agency, as saying. The Swiss Federal Council approved it earlier this week. The signing in Tripoli appears to be the final step needed for two Swiss men held in the country since July 2008 to leave. A Swiss Federal Council plane and delegation are waiting for them in Tripoli.
Related: Jana, 20 August, on the contract
