Verdict delayed for hostage in Libya

The appeal verdict for Max Göldi, the Swiss businessman sentenced to16 months in prison in Libya, has been postponed by one week.

The court in Tripoli will now give its verdict on February 11, according to Daniel Graf from the Swiss branch of human rights organisation Amnesty International, who said he didn’t know the reason for the delay.

Göldi’s Libyan lawyer Salah Zahaf confirmed the news.

On Sunday fellow businessman Rachid Hamdani was cleared of the same charges.

Göldi and Hamdani have been prohibited from leaving Libya since July 19, 2008 after being charged and subsequently convicted of visa violations and carrying out illegal business activities.

The two were arrested amid a diplomatic spat between Switzerland and Libya following the arrest of one of Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi’s sons in a Geneva hotel in July 2008.

They were released later that month. They eventually took refuge in the Swiss embassy. In mid-September, 2009 they left the compound for medical tests and were taken by the Libyan authorities to an undisclosed location in Tripoli – something Bern called a “kidnapping”.

The two Swiss were returned to the embassy on November 9.

swissinfo.ch and agencies