The two Swiss hostages being held in Libya will have to face trial before being allowed to leave the country, the wife of one of them said on Wednesday.
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Bruna Hamdani’s husband, Rachid, and businessman Max Göldi, who works for the engineering giant ABB, have been prevented from leaving Libya for more than a year, accused of violating visa regulations.
She was speaking to French-language public television on Wednesday, just two days after the men were unexpectedly returned to the Swiss embassy in Tripoli after being held for more than seven weeks in a secret location.
They had been lured from the embassy in September, in an action which the Swiss foreign ministry described as “kidnapping”.
Bruna Hamdani, who is now again in regular contact with her husband, said that during their disappearance the two had been kept in separate locked rooms in a villa with no contact to the outside world, but had been well treated.
They were first detained in July 2008, a few days after Geneva police briefly held Hannibal Gaddafi, one of the sons of the Libyan leader, Moammar Gaddafi, and his wife, on charges of mistreating their servants.
Although the servants were compensated and the charges dropped, the two Swiss were still not allowed to leave Libya. However, they were permitted some freedom of movement.
Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz flew to Tripoli in August and apologised for Hannibal’s arrest – triggering a storm of protest at home – but contrary to his expectations, the men were not allowed to return to Switzerland.
After months of quiet diplomacy, Switzerland changed tack last week. It announced that it was suspending the agreement Merz had signed during his visit and that Libyan citizens could face visa restrictions.
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Swiss hostages case swings in Libya’s favour
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Hasni Abidi, director of the Study and Research Center for the Arab and Mediterranean World, says the return of two Swiss hostages to the Swiss embassy in Tripoli on Monday shows that Libya knows how to use the media. “Libya releases Swiss businessmen,” wrote the BBC. French newspapers Libération and Figaro also described the men…
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The Swiss citizens “are as well as can be expected under the circumstances”, the ministry said in a statement. The men were returned to the embassy without an explanation. It is unclear whether they will now be allowed to leave the country. Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey welcomed their re-emergence, and said she had spoken by…
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Libya’s “systematic refusal” to cooperate with Switzerland in the case of two Swiss businessmen who have been prevented from leaving the country for more than a year prompted the decision, a government statement said. The government said that the two men had been “abducted in violation of international law”, and it is not known where…
Slim Hamdani is relieved his father has been returned to the Swiss embassy in Tripoli
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The son of one of the two Swiss businessmen held in Libya has expressed relief at the news that his father has been handed back to the Swiss embassy in Tripoli. Slim Hamdani, the son of hostage Rachid Hamdani, spoke with World Radio Switzerland’s Adam Beaumont.
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Without the backing of the other members of the Swiss cabinet, Merz apologised to Libya for the detention in Geneva last year of Hannibal Gaddafi and his wife. The apology unleashed condemnation of the move across Switzerland.
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