UPDATE 1-Libya hands Swiss businessmen back to embassy

ZURICH, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Two Swiss businessmen prevented from leaving Libya for more than a year have been handed back to the Swiss embassy in Tripoli, the Swiss Foreign Ministry said on Monday. "The two kidnapped Swiss citizens were returned to the Swiss embassy in Tripoli by the Libyan authorities without any explanation," the ministry said in a statement, adding that the pair were as well as could be expected in the circumstances. The ministry did not say whether they could now leave Libya and no one was immediately available to give more details. The two men have been prevented from leaving Libya since July 2008, days after Swiss police arrested Muammar Gaddafi's son Hannibal and his wife in Geneva on charges -- later dropped -- of mistreating two domestic employees. Libya cut oil supplies to Switzerland and withdrew more than $5 billion in assets from Swiss banks after the arrests. The businessmen had been living at the Swiss embassy in Tripoli until the Libyan authorities moved them to an undisclosed location in September. The Swiss government had expected Libya to allow them to leave after President Hans-Rudolf Merz apologised in August for the arrest of Hannibal Gaddafi and agreed to set up an independent committee to investigate the arrest. The two men are Max Goeldi, head of the Swiss-Swedish electrical engineering conglomerate ABB in Tripoli, and a 68-year-old businessman working for a construction company, identified by Swiss media as Rachid Hamdani. Switzerland said last week it had suspended an agreement Merz signed to normalise relations because Tripoli had failed to allow the two men to leave.

Berne also said it would continue to have a restrictive visa policy for Libyan citizens. Merz, who is also Swiss finance minister, has come under pressure to resign for failing to secure the release of the men. Libyan vice-minister Khaled Kaim was quoted on Sunday as telling the Swiss newspaper NZZ am Sonntag that the two men had been held at a safe location since Sept. 18 because a Swiss politician had called for a commando raid to free them. The Geneva prosecutor dropped the case against Hannibal Gaddafi and his wife Aline last year when the plaintiffs withdrew their complaint after reaching an undisclosed settlement. (Reporting by Emma Thomasson; editing by Andrew Dobbie) Keywords: SWISS LIBYA/ ([e-mail]; [phone]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved.

The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.