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Libya cuts oil supplies to Switzerland
Fri. October 10, 2008 04:21 am.- By Bonny Apunyu. -
(SomaliNet) Three months after a diplomatic row erupted over the arrest of a son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in Geneva, Libya cut oil supplies to Switzerland on Thursday.
In July, OPEC member Libya said it would suspend Swiss oil sales after Hannibal Gaddafi was arrested and charged with mistreating two domestic employees.
He denied the charges and was freed on bail, but the case caused uproar in Tripoli and led to the detention of two Swiss nationals, who were later released.
Staff at Libya's state Maritime Transport National Corporation said on July 24 they were halting oil exports to Switzerland.
A week later the Swiss Petroleum Association said deliveries from Libya, a major supplier, had not been interrupted.
The dispute appeared to subside last month when the Swiss prosecutor said he had dropped the case after the plaintiffs withdrew their complaint.
But on Thursday, Libyan fuel refining and distribution firm Tamoil said Libya had stopped delivering crude oil to Switzerland.
"In light of recent media reports, Tamoil would like to confirm we have been advised that the supply of Libyan crude oil to Switzerland has been suspended," Tamoil said in a statement read by CEO Issam Zanati by telephone to a Reuters reporter in Rabat.
"The deliveries of Libyan crude oil to Tamoil refineries in Italy and Germany are not affected."
There was no immediate comment from the Swiss government.
Tamoil says it supplies 20 percent of the Swiss market, or 2.5 million tonnes of oil products a year, and has around 330 service stations in the country.
Zanati did not say when deliveries might resume or elaborate on why Libya had decided to halt supplies now.
Gaddafi was arrested in a luxury hotel on July 15 after staff alerted police to repeated arguments in his suite. He spent two nights in jail while his wife Aline, who was pregnant, was taken to hospital feeling unwell.
Libya said the arrest was an affront to national dignity. The government advised Libyan citizens at the time not to travel to Switzerland and threatened to stop issuing visas to Swiss nationals.
A Swiss official said Gaddafi had not been mistreated and that the law in Switzerland applied to everyone.-Reuters
News Category: Africa
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