Libya: The two Swiss detainees will return by the end of the month

GENEVA-The two Swiss businessmen detained for over a year in Libya go back into the Confederation "by the end of the month," he insisted Friday stating Bern have been guaranteed in the sense of Tripoli.

•     Switzerland's president Hans-Rudolf Merz is in close contact with Prime Minister of Libya. The latter has written guarantee that the two Swiss will leave Libya before the end of the month, "said the Swiss government said in a statement.
  
      The Confederation was Tuesday sent a special plane in hopes of bringing in the wake of the two Swiss nationals. These have received a visa and passport and waiting for the green light by the Minister of Justice who is the amnesty.
  
      On the night of Thursday to Friday, Bern has decided to bring back the Falcon waiting on a military base near Tripoli.
  
      The government said Friday that Libyan authorities had requested the leave as two Swiss businessmen, ie probably by conventional airlines.
  
      "To meet this demand, the Swiss immediately ordered the return of the Falcon," he said adding that the aircraft carrying the Swiss delegation and baggage "of the two Swiss citizens.
  
        The two men, a Swiss-speaking representative of 54 years of engineering group ABB in Libya and the head of a small construction company, are prevented from leaving Libyan territory since July 19, 2008.
  
      It was a retaliation for Tripoli after the arrest in a palace in Geneva of a son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi accused of abuse on two servants.
  
      To end the litigation that led to the rupture of relations between Tripoli and Bern, the Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz presented August 20 apologized to Libya for the arrest and two days of detention of Hannibal Gaddafi and his pregnant wife.
  
      He then reported receiving in-part cons of Tripoli's promise to let the two Swiss before 1 September.
  
      
  Ennaharonline / AFP