Libya cuts oil sales to Swiss

2008-10-10 14:30

Tripoli - Libya has decided to halt oil deliveries to Switzerland and withdraw its funds from Swiss banks in protest at the brief detention in Geneva in July of a son of its leader Muammar Gaddaffi, the official news agency announced.

Libya "has decided to stop crude oil shipments to Switzerland and withdraw Libyan assets from Swiss banks, which amount to seven billion dollars," JANA said overnight.

Tripoli will "also put an end to all economic cooperation with Switzerland" in protest at the "poor treatment of Libyan diplomats and businessmen by the canton of Geneva", it quoted an unnamed foreign ministry official as saying.

There was no immediate reaction from the Swiss authorities.

The north African country first threatened to halt oil deliveries after Gaddaffi's son Hannibal was arrested in Switzerland in July along with his wife Aline after two servants claimed they had abused them.

The threat was not carried out and Swiss prosecutors closed the case last month after the two servants, a Tunisian woman and a Moroccan man who received compensation from the couple, dropped assault charges.

The official news agency said the Libyan decision would be revoked once the reasons for the treatment of the diplomats and businessmen had been explained.

Tripoli wants a formal apology from Bern and has stopped two Swiss nationals from leaving the country in retaliation for Hannibal Gaddaffi's arrest.

It has already restricted air links, stopped issuing visas to Swiss nationals, shut the Tripoli offices of major Swiss companies ABB and Nestle, and detained the two Swiss nationals - who were subsequently released.

Libyan oil company Tamoil said on Wednesday that the government had decided to halt oil deliveries to Switzerland.

"It is a decision of Libya and not Tamoil," Tamoil CEO Issam Zanati said in a telephone interview.

Libya supplies about 2.5 million tons of crude to Switzerland a year, about 20 percent of the country's total needs.

Zanati was unable to say how long the suspension would last or why the decision was taken.

A halt in Libyan deliveries would not affect supplies or prices in Switzerland as distributors would have ample time to find other suppliers, the head of the country's oil companies association, Rolf Hartl, has told the Swiss news agency ATS.

Hannibal Gaddaffi, the fifth eldest son of the Libyan leader, has a chequered past dogged by run-ins with the police across Europe and allegations of violence and drink driving.

In 2005, France gave him a four-month suspended sentence and ordered him to pay a 500-euro fine for bodily harm against his pregnant partner, now wife, and illegal possession of a firearm.

A year earlier, he was arrested after speeding through red lights on the Champs Elysees in his Porsche. Some media reports said he had been drinking and was driving on the wrong side of the posh Paris avenue.

- AFP