GENEVA: Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim denied in an interview on Sunday that authorities had promised to resolve the situation of two Swiss businessmen blocked in Tripoli by the end of August.
Swiss President Hans Rudolf Merz said last month he had struck a deal that included their swift return in a bid to resolve a bitter 13-month standoff between the two countries, sparking a political storm in Switzerland.
“Maybe there has been a misunderstanding,” Kaim told the newspaper NZZ am Sonntag after being asked about the claimed August release.
He suggested that the Libyan government had agreed to take the case up rather than release the two by the end of last month.
“Our prime minister promised then that something would be undertaken within August in the case of both the Swiss men.”
“His promise was kept since the attorney-general met them both before the end of the month,” added Kaim.
Swiss authorities have said Merz received a “written assurance” that the businessmen, who are staying in the Swiss Embassy in Tripoli, would be allowed to leave Libya before the end of August.
Their swift return was presented in Switzerland as the counterpart for a controversial apology Merz made to Libya on Aug. 20 for the arrest of one of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s sons in Geneva in July 2008.
Kaim said he hoped the two businessmen would be free to travel home soon.
But he cautioned that it would take time to fully normalize relations between Switzerland and Libya “for technical, not political reasons.”
Merz has come under growing domestic pressure with no sign of movement from the two businessmen, who were charged with immigration offenses last year shortly after the Geneva arrests and prevented from leaving Libya.
Their plight is regarded in Switzerland as retaliation for the incident with Qaddafi’s son. Kaim said the charges were not trumped up.
Hannibal Qaddafi and his wife were arrested in a luxury hotel in Geneva after two of their servants alleged they had been mistreated.The Qaddafi couple was held for two days before being freed on bail. The complaint against them was later dropped after a lawyer said the servants had received compensation.
