LIBYA: Gaddafi son’s arrest leads to oil embargo on Swiss

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Libya does not react lightly to authorities in another country getting in the way of its leader’s son.

The brief detention by the Swiss police of the youngest son of Muammar Gaddafi, Hannibal, last week for allegedly beating two of his servants in a luxury hotel has sparked a serious international row between Switzerland and the North African nation.

Libya decided Thursday to cut its oil shipments to Switzerland as a result. The state-run shipping company threatened to take more actions against the Swiss if they do not apologize for the arrest.

Cutting oil supplies is more than a little arm-twisting measure. Switzerland imports more that 50% of its crude oil from Libya.

The Swiss foreign ministry also said on Wednesday that authorities in Libya closed Swiss businesses and detained two Swiss citizens as ‘worrying retaliatory measures.’

The Swiss media expressed its outrage at Libya’s revengeful response and played down the economic threats made by Libya. ‘Does this desert dictator think he can do what he wants with Switzerland?’ the tabloid Blick said.

The Zurich-based Tages-Anzeiger called Libya ‘a paradise for shadowy foreign businessmen’ who value the fact that there are ‘no clear laws.’

The episode began last week, when Hannibal Gaddafi and his wife were arrested at a luxury hotel in Geneva for allegedly striking two of their servants. They were released on bail two days later and left the country.

The younger Gaddafi denied any wrongdoing. But this was not his first confrontation with the law in the West. He was convicted a few years earlier by a French court of assaulting his girlfriend.

The Swiss said they had dispatched a delegation to explain their position to Tripoli. But will the Libyans budge?

— Raed Rafei in Beirut

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