Libyan source claims Swiss operate blacklist

A Libyan newspaper with links to the Gaddafi family has claimed that Switzerland has drawn up a list of 188 Libyan officials barred from entering Switzerland.

Bern has refused to comment on the report in Oea newspaper, which cites a “high level Libyan official” as its source.

The Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi and his family, along with members of government, parliamentarians and military and security chiefs are said to feature on the alleged list.

“The authorities of the Swiss entity have made a decision to ban 188 individuals from entering the territory of that entity,” the newspaper, close to Gaddafi’s son Seif Al-Islam, wrote.

The unnamed senior Libyan source threatened reciprocal action against Switzerland if the alleged decision to establish a blacklist was not reversed.

The latest rumblings from Libya are part of an ongoing diplomatic row between the two countries that was sparked in July 2008 by the detention in Geneva of one of Gaddafi’s sons and his wife after they were suspected of assaulting two of their domestic staff.

Two Swiss businessmen, arrested by the Libyan authorities for “violating visa regulations” and “illegal economic activity” shortly after the Geneva incident, have been prevented from leaving Libya ever since.

swissinfo.ch and agencies