Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa warned that if the Swiss man, Max Goeldi, was not surrendered by 11:00 GMT Monday, the government would take action. He did not elaborate. “No embassy should become a haven from justice,” Koussa told the Associated Press late on Sunday. “I hope this will not force us to adopt other measures.”
A Libyan appeals court earlier this month reduced Goeldi’s prison sentence for violating residency laws from 16 months to four months. He and another Swiss businessman, Rachid Hamdani, were allowed to stay in the embassy during their trial. Hamdani was acquitted.
Goeldi’s lawyer, Saleh al-Zahif, told The Associated Press on Monday that he would try to negotiate Goeldi’s handover to Libyan authorities so that he can appeal his four-month sentence to the supreme court.
Several Libyan policemen took up post outside the Swiss Embassy after the government issued its ultimatum to hand Goeldi over.
Al-Zahif, who is also Hamdani’s lawyer, said Hamdani had left the embassy and was arranging the necessary documents that would allow him to leave Libya. The diplomatic dispute erupted after Swiss police briefly detained Hannibal Gaddafi, the son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, and his wife in 2008, after two of their servants accused the couple of beating them at a Geneva hotel. Geneva authorities dropped their criminal investigation after the servants withdrew their complaint, but the Libyan leader forced the Swiss to apologize and Libya withdrew all the money it had in Swiss vaults.
The row was exacerbated after Goeldi was convicted and Switzerland put Muammar Gaddafi and his family on a visa blacklist, in effect barring them from entering dozens of other European states.
