Two detained Swiss citizens returned to their embassy

Latest update : 2009-11-09

Two Swiss businessmen, held in Libya since July 2008, have been returned to their embassy without any further information on the cause of their detention.

AFP - Two Swiss citizens who were "kidnapped" in Libya in the midst of a diplomatic spat were returned to the Swiss embassy in the Libyan capital on Monday, the Swiss foreign ministry said.

"On Monday, 9 November 2009, the two kidnapped Swiss citizens were returned to the Swiss embassy in Tripoli by the Libyan authorities without any explanations," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

"According to the embassy, the two are in good condition considering the circumstances," it added.

The Swiss government this month suspended an agreement with Libya that aimed to resolve a dispute sparked by the brief arrest of one of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi's sons in Geneva over a year ago.

The move was motivated partly by the disappearance more than two weeks ago of the two Swiss businessmen, who have been prevented from leaving Libya for more than a year.

Tripoli first launched a series of retaliatory sanctions, including a freeze on some business relations, against Switzerland over the arrest of Hannibal Kadhafi and his pregnant wife in July 2008.

The two Swiss businessmen in Tripoli were refused exit visas and were charged with alleged immigration offences.

However, instead of being allowed out of the country under the normalisation deal struck by Bern and Tripoli this August, the two went missing after they were invited out of the Swiss embassy for a medical check-up.

Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey had accused Libyan authorities of "kidnapping" them, while Libya said they were being kept in a "safe location".

The Swiss government says Libya has systematically failed to abide by the agreement on normalising relations, which included a controversial apology by President Hans-Rudolf Merz for the Kadhafi arrest in Geneva last year.

Following the latest twist in the 15 month-old standoff, Swiss authorities also disclosed last week that they had imposed unspecified "restrictions" on visas for Libyan travellers.

Swiss media reports have suggested that the Kadhafi family was directly targeted by the restrictions.