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| Africa North |
| Libya frees jailed Swiss businessman |
| 2010-06-11 |
| Swiss businessman Max Göldi has been freed from a Libyan jail, potentially drawing a line under a tit-for- tat diplomatic dispute that has simmered between Libya and Switzerland. Swiss sources expressed confidence that Mr Göldi, who has been detained in Libya for almost two years, would be able to return home shortly. Mr Göldi, country manager in Libya for ABB, the Swiss/Swedish electrical engineering group, was detained with Rachid Hamdani, a second Swiss citizen, in an apparent Libyan reprisal for the brief arrest in Geneva two years ago of Hannibal Gadaffi, one of the Libyan leader's sons. Mr Hamdani was later allowed to leave the country. The Swiss foreign ministry late on Thursday night confirmed Mr Göldi had now been released from jail, where he had been held for almost four months for alleged visa and other misdemeanours. Previously, Mr Göldi and the other Swiss citizen held by the Libyans, had taken refuge in the Swiss embassy in Tripoli after an initial brief period of detention. Bern specifically thanked the Spanish and German governments for helping to secure Mr Göldi's release. “We are very happy that our fellow citizen Max Göldi has been released from jail. This is a step. Now it is for him to return home to his family as soon as possible', said the Swiss foreign ministry in a statement. We are confident that this can happen in the following days'. It remained unclear on Friday morning when exactly Mr Göldi, who had barely started his ABB job in Libya before becoming unwittingly involved in the spat, would return home. He still needs documentation allowing him to leave Libya. Government offices were closed on Friday as it is not a working day in Libya. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #1 Looking at this sorry episode (and it is not over yet!), Israel made a major mistake when it did not resort to taking a high profile hostage like Henning Mankell. They should have told the world that Mankell won't be released as long as Shalit is held, adding generic Libya and North Korea are being amply rewarded for similar actions. Why not Israel? |
| Posted by: Clusoper the Lesser2995 2010-06-11 16:29 |