LIBYA – Hannibal Qadaffi’s name is back in the news after western reporters say to have found evidence of “inhumane treatment” of his staff at his compound.
The son of Libya’s leader Muammar Qadaffi, who won his lawsuit for defamation of character brought against the Geneva newspaper La Tribune de Genève and the city of Geneva, and who said would continue to insist “on an international tribunal to clear his name,” could have been hiding a maid that, seemingly, was brutalized by his wife.
In 2008, “Hannibal,” as he is known, was arrested at a luxury hotel in Geneva on charges of abusing two of his domestic staff. The servants later dropped the charges against him.
CNN correspondent Dan Rivers, seems to have found further evidence that abuses against staff at the Hannibal’s household may be widespread. The reporter found a 30-year-old Ethiopian maid, Shweyga Mullah, who says she was brutally tortured by Hannibal’s wife and was later forbidden from receiving medical treatment.
Hannibal Qadaffi and his father are still on the run.
Warning: The CNN report includes graphic content.
Swiss “very aware of courage” of Libyan protestors “based on experience”
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss government Monday 21 February suspended preparatory work on the tribunal it agreed to with Libya in order to ensure that two Swiss men held hostage by the Libyan government in 2010 would be freed. The announcement came as part of a message strongly condemning the Libyan government for its “targeted violence” marked by an “extreme repression” against its own citizens.
An arbitrator, Philippe Kirsch, was named only six days ago to oversee the tribunal, a sign that the long-stalled tribunal could soon get underway. It was created as a condition by Libya to free two Swiss hostages in 2010 who were taken, it is widely believed in Switzerland, in retaliation for the arrest in Geneva of Hannibal Qadaffi, one of the sons of Libya’s leader.
Swiss told to leave Libya if they can
Switzerland also told its citizens to leave Libya if possible and discouraged Swiss travellers from going to Libya, saying the outcome of the protests is uncertain. Libyan hospitals are overwhelmed and they are short of blood for necessary transfusions, according to all available evidence, Bern said in a Monday statement.
“Given its experience with the regime in Tripoli, Switzerland is very aware of the courage shown by the men and women who have taken to the streets in Libya to cry for their democratic rights,” the Swiss government notes.
Forty-six Swiss citizens are registered with the Swiss embassy in Tripoli, most of them dual nationals, and the government says it is in close contact with each of them.
AFP reports air space over Libya closed
Late Monday an Austrian army officer told news agency AFP that air space over Libya has been closed (not confirmed).
Details linked to Swiss-Libyan agreement surfacing
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss Foreign Affairs Department has confirmed to Swiss public radio and television media reports that it has put CHF1.5 million into a bank account in Germany for Libya. The money will be paid to Libya in the case a judicial investigation in Geneva does not produce the name of the person(s) who illegally handed a police photo of Hannibal Qadaffi, son of the Libyan leader, to the Tribune de Geneve, which published it.
The amount was determined by the two governments together, based on the money spent on legal fees by Qadaffi, who pressed charges. Hannibal Qadaffi in April won the court case in Geneva for defamation.
A citizens' movement would like to make Hannibal Qadaffi persona non grata in the city
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The thief or thieves of a police mug shot of Hannibal Qadaffi, remain unidentified, despite an investigation in Geneva that has lasted nearly a year. Pierre Ruetschi, editor-in-chief of the Tribune de Geneve newspaper, continues to defend his publication’s use of a photo of Hannibal Qadaffi, son of the Libyan leader, taken while he was in police custody in July 2008.
The photo has been at the centre of the diplomatic tussle between Libya and Switzerland that resulted in Swiss businessman Max Goeldi being imprisoned in Libya for nearly two years. As part of an agreement to get Goeldi’s release, Switzerland said it would ensure that judicial hearings would try to find those guilty for stealing the photo, and that they would be brought to justice. The magistrate in charge of the case, Alix Francotte Conus, told Le Temps newspaper and TSR television this week that the investigation is nearly completed, with the computer searches finished and most of the interviews done, although she has yet to interview Ruetschi.
If Conus’s investigations turn up nothing she will hand over the case to public prosecutor Daniel Zappelli, who will either close the case or ask her to undertake additional investigative work, according to TSR. The public television station also notes that a motion filed in August 2009 will finally make it onto the Grand Conseil (city council) calendar Friday evening 19 June, a motion by the Mouvement citoyens genevois to declare Hannibal Qadaffi persona non grata in the city.
Update 3 / 14 June Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss businessman Max Goeldi, freed from prison in Libya 10 June, is en route home to Switzerland, news agency AFP reports his lawyer as saying Sunday night, possibly via Tunis.
Switzerland and Libya signed a “plan of action” Sunday in Tripoli, with Germany and Spain also signatories, to end the diplomatic impasse between the Swiss and Libyan governments. Max Goeldi, Swiss businessman and ABB employee who has been held in Libya for nearly two years, is scheduled to fly home from Tripoli, via Madrid, Sunday. Goeldi’s prison sentence in Libya for visa irregularities has been at the centre of the diplomatic tussle that began with the arrest in Geneva in July 2008 of Hannibal Qadaffi, son of Libya’s leader.
Swiss Secretary for Foreign Affairs Micheline Calmy-Rey made the announcements about Goeldi’s flight home and the action plan as she came out of a meeting in Tripoli with her Libyan counterpart, Moussa Koussa. She also met with Libya’s leader Muammar Qadaffi in his reception tent, along with Spanish leader Miguel Angel Moratinos and Italy’s prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, as well as other European leaders.
The plan of action includes the following:
- a tribunal will be created to investigate the circumstances surrounding the arrest in Geneva of Hannibal Qadaffi in July 2008, to which then-Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz agreed in principle in August 2009;
- Switzerland will offer Libya an official apology for the theft of a police mug shot of Hannibal Qadaffi from police files, and for their publication in the Tribune de Geneve newspaper, and those who stole the material will be prosecuted (it was revealed that a criminal case has already been opened);
- Max Goeldi’s request for a judicial pardon from Libya will be expedited.
TSR, Swiss public television, reports that Tripoli says Geneva has already paid CHF1.5 million euros to Hannibal Qadaffi, a sum that has not been verified and that runs counter to statements made earlier by Bern.
Swiss Secretary for Foreign Affairs Micheline Calmy-Rey made the announcements about Goeldi’s flight home and the action plan as she came out of a meeting in Tripoli with her Libyan counterpart, Moussa Koussa.
Background, GenevaLunch
Rashid Hamdani, left and Max Goeldi, right, at the Swiss embassy in Tripoli in 2009
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Swiss media are drawing attention 21 April to the plight of Max Goeldi, who has now purged half of a four-month prison sentence in Libya. The 19 months of detention the Swiss businessman served before he was judged for visa violations did not count towards purging his sentence.
A letter written by Goeldi to one of Muammar Qadaffi’s sons, Seif al-Islam, has reportedly been published by Libyan news agency Ansa, which is close to the younger Qadaffi.
Update 19:30 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Hannibal Qadaffi, son of Libya’s leader, who won his lawsuit for defamation of character, brought against the Geneva newspaper La Tribune de Genève and the city of Geneva, says he will continue to insist on an international tribunal to clear his name.
He filed charges after the newspaper published his police mug shot, which was leaked to it by a city employee, who remains unknown to city authorities despite a lengthy internal investigation that continues. The court noted that the photo, published 4 September 2009, was used illegally and that it offered readers no new information.
Police photos are not made public in Switzerland, where privacy laws protect those under arrest.
Qadaffi was not awarded monetary damages. He had sought CHF100,000, an amount well above that normally awarded by Swiss courts for atteints à l’honneur, a legal category broader than slander, the court pointed out, noting that in the case of the death of a spouse, the award is generally CHF30-40,000.
Charges against Tribune de Geneve journalist dismissed by judge
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The legal case opened Thursday 18 March between Hannibal Qadaffi, son of Libya’s leader, and canton Geneva plus the Tribune de Genève newspaper. The judge quickly dismissed charges against a journalist working for the Tribune who had approved but not selected the article and photograph, the newspaper reports. But swissinfo reports that Hannibal Qadaffi, who has asked for damages of CHF100,000, said Thursday evening he is no longer interested in the money: he wants an international tribunal to acquit him. Qadaffi was interviewed by news agency AFP.
Swiss newspaper says canton condemning it without justice taking its course
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – Canton Geneva late Wednesday at a press conference confirmed through its lawyer that it is ready to pay a fair sum to Hannibal Qadaffi, compensating him for moral damage because a state employee appears to have been involved in leaking a police mug shot of him to the Tribune de Genève. The state noted that the action was “deplorable” and completely unacceptable, and that it will also sanction the employee, if the investigation into the leak makes it possible to determine who supplied the photo.
The state, in filing its “Memorandum” with the court hearing Qadaffi’s civil suit, filed against the canton and the newspaper in December 2009, asks the court to determine how much of the sum should be borne by Geneva and how much by the newspaper. But Tribune editor-in-chief Pierre Ruetschi Wednesday noon wrote a scathing comment on the papers the canton filed with the court.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss government remains silent on Libya, while Libya appears to want to stay in news headlines this week: leader Muammar Qadaffi’s declaration of a jihad or holy war against Switzerland last week was firmly rebuffed as unacceptably by the United Nations and Swiss Muslim leaders. Reports are coming in that some Libyans have taken it more seriously, and that anywhere from 1,000 t0 2,000 of them, depending on who is reporting, have gathered outside the Swiss Embassy in Tripoli. Security forces are guarding the building.
Meanwhile, Hannibal Qadaffi has visited Max Goeldi in prison in Libya, in the presence of reporters.
Agreement should be cancelled now, says Commission head
Rachid Hamdani, Max Goeldi in Tripoli (©2009 DR / Amnesty International)
Update 17:15 Bern, Switzerland (GenvaLunch) – One of two Swiss men held in Tripoli, Libya has had his hearing postponed until 24 January, the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs announced Sunday 10 January. Rachid Hamdani did not appear at the scheduled hearing for fear of being seized by Libyan authorities. The two Swiss, held in Tripoli, since July 2008 following the arrest in Geneva of Hannibal Qadaffi and his wife, have been accused of visa violations and tax evasion. Their Libyan lawyer says he has not had access to all the documents held by the prosecution.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The son of Libyan leader Muammar Qadaffi, Hannibal, has acted on his earlier threats to sue the canton of Geneva, the Tribune de Genève newspaper and one of its reporters. The younger Qadaffi filed charges 17 December, the Tribune has learned, against the newspaper and its journalist for publishing in September 2009 unflattering official police shots of the man taken in July 2008 when he was arrested.
Rachid Hamdani, Max Goeldi, Swiss detained in Libya (©2009 DR / Amnesty International)
Tripoli, Libya (GenevaLunch) - The two Swiss men detained in Libya, Rachid Hamdani and Max Goeldi, appear together in a photo for the first time, distributed by Amnesty International’s Swiss office as a way of thanking the public for its support in recent days. Virtual candles have been lit in growing numbers since the start of December at www.bougieenlibye.ch and by today, 10 December and International Human Rights Day, 10,000 candles have been lit for the two men. They have also received more than 4,500 messages of support via Internet. Some 25,000 postcards from the public in Switzerland are also en route to the Swiss embassy in Tripoli, for the men.
The men read messages sent via Twitter several times a day, on a computer at the embassy, where they are staying while they await a second trial. A first trial found the men guilty of tax and visa irregularities. They were detained in July 2008, shortly after the arrest in Geneva of Hannibal Qadaffi, son of the Libyan leader.
“All these messages of support are really helping Rachid and me – they give us the courage to carry on, to remain hopeful,” Goeldi told Amnesty International eariler this week.
Background stories, GenevaLunch
Links to other sites: Amnesty International Switzerland, Virtual candles for Rachid and Max
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Two Swiss men who were whisked away to a secret location, without outside contact, by the Libyan government in October have been turned over to the Swiss embassy in Tripoli, Libya. The men were kidnapped after being lured away on the pretext of needing medical examinations. The two have been waiting for exit visas to leave the country, and they have been at the centre of a tense political standoff between Bern and Tripoli.
