Libya is restricting oil deliveries to Switzerland, and has closed the offices of two Swiss companies, in response to the arrest in Geneva of one of the sons of Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, on suspicion of assaulting two of his staff. The Swiss Foreign Minister is trying to calm the Libyans down by pointing out that the court case in Switzerland is nothing to do with the Swiss government.
Gaddafi's only daughter, Aisha, told journalists in Switzerland last week that
"My brother's only offence is that he is the son of Colonel Gaddafi, who is helping people to free themselves from colonialism and capitalism."
Gaddafi's 32-year-old son Hannibal and his wife were arrested in a luxury hotel in Geneva on 15 July on suspicion of assaulting two members of their staff. The couple were held for two days, and then freed on bail of half a million Swiss francs.
Furious demonstrators
Hannibal's wife is heavily pregnant, and the couple had come to Switzerland for the birth. The two members of staff, a Moroccan man and a Tunisian woman, had accompanied them from Libya, and went to the Swiss police with their accusations. The lawyer representing Hannibal Gaddafi and his wife claims the two are lying, and are trying to use the accusations to get political asylum in Switzerland. The Moroccan has in the meantime asked for asylum.
In Libya there has been an angry reaction to the arrest. Last week, demonstrators gathered in front of the Swiss embassy in Tripoli to show their "loyalty to the revolution, and to the leader and his family." Gaddafi's revolutionary committees asked for an apology from Switzerland, saying that in the absence of an apology they would take reprisal measures.
|
| Libyan demonstrators hold up placards of Colonel Gaddafi and his son Hannibal |
Reprisals
It now looks as if the Libyan government's reprisals have started. Oil deliveries to Switzerland have partly stopped, and the offices of two Swiss companies - Nestlé and the Swiss-Swedish engineering company APP - have been closed. Managers from both companies have been taken into custody. The Libyan ambassador to Switzerland has also been recalled, and air transport between the two countries has been restricted by the Libyan authorities.
Libya is the biggest supplier of oil to Switzerland, and an important business partner. 85 percent of Swiss oil imports come from Libya, and in 2006 trade between the two countries amounted to more than 1.25 billion euros.
Separate powers
Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey has made it clear in a telephone conversation with her Libyan counterpart Abdelrahman Shalgam that she is shocked at these ‘reprisals.' But she also told him that she doesn't want the matter to escalate further. A Swiss diplomatic delegation has left for Tripoli to explain to the authorities there that in Switzerland the powers of the government and the legal authorities are separate.
Hannibal Gadaffi has created quite a reputation for himself in Europe. In 2004 he was arrested in Paris for driving along the Champs Elysées at 140 km per hour. The following year, also in Paris, he was convicted and fined for assaulting his then girlfriend, a Lebanese model.
Crusade
But Aisha Gaddafi insists that on this occasion the accusation against her brother is groundless. According to her, the charge forms part of a Swiss crusade against Libya. She claims that an important clue lies in the cross on the Swiss flag. The only appropriate reaction, according to her, was to hit back strongly. "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" was how she put it, quoting a phrase that appears both in the Old Testament and in the Qur'an.
* RNW translation (as)
Tags: arrest, assault, Geneva, Ghaddafi, Libya, oil, Switzerland, Tripoli