Swiss held in Libya: Tripoli requires more than 500,000 euro bailment

GENEVA - Libya requires payment of more than half a million euros in bail to allow two Swiss nationals detained for over a year in Tripoli to leave the country, according to "sources closer to the file, on the Swiss side" cited Tuesday by the Suisse Romande Radio (RSR).

•     According to the sources of the RSR, "Libya requires a deposit of 500,000 Libyan dinars (more than 283,000 euros) for the release of the two Swiss.
  
      "If the transaction is effective, the Libyan prosecutor must still sign it for them to leave Libya," said RSR in its diary in mid-day.
  
      The two men were still being held Tuesday in Libya, while the President of Switzerland Hans-Rudolf Merz had received assurances that they would be back home before the end of August.
  
      Hours before its expiry, the delay has been postponed by Libyan Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Khaled Kaim said Monday that the possibility of an invitation before the " prosecutor " before their departure, in an interview on Suisse Romande TV (TSR).
  
      "They may need to review the prosecutor before their departure, but I can not give a return date", said the Minister in the interview aired in the television news Monday night.
  
      "These people must follow legal procedures," he said, arguing that "nothing on" the two Swiss in the agreements between Switzerland and Libya to settle the dispute that followed the arrest in July 2008 Geneva of Hannibal Kadhafi, a son of the Libyan leader, accused of abusing two of his servants.
  
      The President of the Confederation signed on August 20 in Tripoli an agreement to establish an independent tribunal to adjudicate on the legality of the arrest. The son of Libyan leader and his pregnant wife were arrested in a luxury hotel in Geneva, before being released on bail. The servants had subsequently withdrawn their complaints after being compensated.
  
      After more than a year of severance of relations with Tripoli as a result of this case, Mr. Merz had gone to Libya to apologize for Switzerland.
  
      The document signed during the visit does not include any clause, however, the fate of the representative of the engineering group ABB in Libya and the head of a small construction company, prevented from leaving for over a year the Libyan territory, in retaliation.
  
      The apology by Mr. Merz and procrastination of the Libyan regime to let the two "hostages" leave are experienced as a true national humiliation in Switzerland.
  
      
  Ennaharonline/ M. O.