Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi says he is prepared to intervene personally to bring an end to Switzerland’s row with Libya.
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Berlusconi made the pledge during a meeting on Wednesday in Rome with this year’s Swiss president Doris Leuthard, Leuthard told Swiss public television.
“Italy wants to assist Switzerland and Max Göldi”, Leuthard said, referring to the Swiss businessman serving a four-month prison sentence in Tripoli on visa violation charges.
“[But] it will be Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi who will take the decision [on Göldi’s release],” she added.
Göldi, an employee of ABB, was first detained shortly after the brief 2008 arrest in Geneva of Hannibal Gaddafi, one of Gaddafi’s sons. Hannibal was arrested on charges he and his wife abused their domestic staff at a Geneva hotel.
Leuthard and Berlusconi also discussed Italy’s tax amnesty, which ended on April 30, and affected Swiss banks in Ticino.
“The tax amnesty caused problems for Switzerland, but it was a legitimate move and important for Italy,” Leuthard said. “Italy and Switzerland have their own ideas about what should be included in a double taxation agreement, and one must find a pragmatic solution that is in the interests of both.”
On Thursday, Leuthard will be granted a private audience with the pope, as part of the swearing-in ceremony of the new members of the Vatican’s Swiss Guard.
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Did lifting Libyan visa ban help Max Göldi?
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The blacklist was ostensibly the last card Switzerland had to play in pressuring Libya to release the engineer held in a Tripoli jail. Today officials are mostly mum on what, if any, progress has been made to get him out. Göldi, a manager for firm ABB, has now completed two months of a four-month sentence…
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But the Geneva court rejected a claim for compensation by Hannibal Gaddafi, in a ruling made public on Monday. The Tribune de Genève newspaper printed the photos of Hannibal Gaddafi in September 2009, 14 months after he was detained with his wife Aline for allegedly abusing their staff in a Geneva hotel. Hannibal Gaddafi then…
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Libya hailed the agreement with the European Union as a victory over Switzerland, which no longer has any means of exerting pressure on Tripoli to release a Swiss businessman jailed there. The Swiss foreign ministry dismissed allegations its visa blacklist had violated the rules of the borderless travel zone grouping 22 EU countries, Switzerland, Norway…
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On September 1, 1969, a small group of military officers led by then 27-year-old army officer Moammar Gaddafi overthrew Libya’s King Idris’ government. The revolutionary officers abolished the monarchy, and proclaimed the new republic. Gaddafi is to this day, referred to as the “Brother Leader and Guide of the Revolution” in government statements and the…
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