TRIPOLI, Nov 12, 2009 (AFP) - Libya denied Thursday that two Swiss citizens were kidnapped from their embassy in September, saying instead they were "transferred" amid reports a commando operation was being planned to free them.
The two businessmen, who went missing in mid-September after they left the embassy in the Libyan capital to undergo a medical check-up at the request of Libyan authorities, were returned to the complex on Monday.
Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey had accused the authorities of "kidnapping" the businessmen, who have been prevented from leaving Libya after a diplomatic spat erupted in July 2008 over the arrest of one of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi's sons in Geneva.
"The two Swiss nationals were not kidnapped nor did they go missing," Libyan deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaim told AFP, in the first official reaction to the affair by the Libyan authorities.
"Their transfer was decided following reports in the Swiss media that a commando operation might be launched to free them," he added.
According to Kaim, Libya sent a diplomatic note to the Swiss embassy in Tripoli informing it that the men were to be transferred.
"We also asked the Libyan charge d'affaires in Bern to ask for explanations and a denial of the reports of a commando operation but the Swiss authorities refused to respond," he added.
Partly due to the disappearance of the two businessmen, the Swiss government this month suspended an agreement with Libya that aimed to resolve the dispute sparked by the arrest of Hannibal Kadhafi and his pregnant wife in a luxury hotel over allegations that the couple had mistreated two servants.
Tripoli first launched a series of retaliatory sanctions, including a freeze on some business relations, against Switzerland over the arrests.
Included in the measures were the denial of exit visas to the two businessmen, who were charged with alleged immigration offences.
Tripoli and Bern attempted to end the diplomatic spat through a normalisation deal in August, under which the Swiss nationals were to be allowed to leave Libya.
The Swiss government says Libya has systematically failed to abide by the agreement on normalising relations, which included a controversial apology by President Hans-Rudolf Merz for the Kadhafi arrest.
Following the latest twist in the 15-month-old standoff, Swiss authorities also disclosed last week that they had imposed unspecified "restrictions" on visas for Libyan travellers.
Swiss media reports have suggested that the Kadhafi family was directly targeted by the restrictions.
afg-ila/bpz/kir
Copyright AFP 2009.
