Switzerland's long Libyan nightmare is finally over

Posted By Joshua Keating Monday, January 9, 2012 - 7:01 PM Share

The multiyear diplomatic feud between Switzerland and Libya originally set off by enfant terrible Hannibal Qaddafi's 2008 hotel room assault on two of his servants has finally come to an end: 

The new Libyan government made the decision on Sunday and announced the news on Monday, leaving Libya free to do business with Switzerland as well as with Lebanon, which the late ruler Moammar Gaddafi had also boycotted.

The economic sanctions against Switzerland were the result of a diplomatic row between Switzerland and Libya over the arrest of Moammar Gaddafi’s son Hannibal in Geneva in July 2008.

The Swiss assault was just one of several violent incidents in European luxury hotels inolving Hannibal during the last decade. The elder Qaddafi's response to the incident was characteristially over-the-top, involving detaining Swiss businessmen and even proposing at the U.N. that the country be abolished. 

As for Hannibal, the most recent reports are that he's fled to Algeria. 

 

 

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