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Gadhafi's son charged with beating up servants
GENEVA: The youngest son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was arrested and charged with beating two of his servants at a luxury hotel in Switzerland, his lawyer said Thursday. Hannibal Gadhafi and his wife were taken into custody by police Tuesday after the alleged incident in Geneva, lawyer Alain Berger told Swiss radio. The couple, who face charges of bodily harm, making threats and coercion, deny the allegations and were freed on bail Thursday, he said.Geneva magistrate Michel-Alexandre Graber could not be reached for comment Thursday. A phone call to the Libyan Embassy in the Swiss capital, Bern, went unanswered. Berger said Gadhafi spent two nights in detention, while his pregnant wife, who came to Geneva to give birth, was transferred to a maternity unit. The Swiss newspaper Tribune de Geneve said two of Gadhafi's domestic servants claimed Gadhafi and his wife repeatedly beat them at the President Wilson Hotel, which is next door to the United Nations' human rights office. The pair allegedly hit the servants with a belt and a hanger, the report said. It said a Tunisian woman was hospitalized. The 32-year-old Gadhafi has had previous run-ins with the law. In 2005, a French court convicted him of striking his pregnant companion in a Paris hotel. He was given a four-month suspended prison sentence and fined $790. Gadhafi was also at the center of a commotion in Paris the previous year, when police stopped him for speeding on the Champs-Elysées and his bodyguards attacked several officers. Two of the bodyguards were taken into custody but released after Libyan diplomats apologized to police. Posted by: tipper 2008-07-18 |
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