Passport returned to Swiss man in Libya dispute: Amnesty
(GENEVA) - Libya has returned the passport of one of two Swiss businesmen detained in its standoff with Switzerland but has not given him an exit visa, Amnesty International said Saturday.
Rashid Hamdani -- who has been stranded in Libya with fellow businessman Max Goeldi for 19 months -- retrieved his Swiss and Tunisian passports last weekend, Amnesty spokeswoman Manon Schick told AFP.
"He does not have an exit visa," said Schick, citing Hamdani's wife.
A Libyan court had dropped the last legal charges retained against Hamdani, alleging illegal business activities, a week earlier.
A spokesman for the Swiss foreign ministry, Georg Farago, told AFP he could "neither confirm nor deny" the report, which came amid a diplomatic push to resolve the dispute that has now embroiled European Union countries.
Farago confirmed that talks had taken place this weekend with Libya in Berlin under German auspices.
"Switzerland will do everything in its power to obtain the release of the two Swiss (citizens) in Libya," he added.
The foreign ministry declined to give further details.
Libya and Switzerland have locked horns since July 2008, when Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi's son Hannibal was arrested in the Swiss city of Geneva after two domestic workers complained he had mistreated them.
The row escalated when Libya swiftly detained and confiscated the passports of Hamdani and Goeldi, and deepened again last year when a tentative political deal between Swiss and Libyan ministers unravelled.
Other European capitals were drawn in over the past week when Libya retaliated against Swiss visa restrictions by denying entry to citizens of Europe's 25-state Schengen free-travel zone, of which Switzerland is a member.
On Thursday, Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey met her Libyan counterpart Moussa Koussa in Madrid for the first time in months, under the auspices of Spain, which holds the presidency of the European Union.
Calmy-Rey said afterwards that negotiations were continuing.
Goeldi, the other businessman holed up in the Swiss embassy in Tripoli, faces a four-month sentence for overstaying his visa and an 800-dollar fine for illegal business activities.
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