Libya halts oil shipments to Switzerland

By KHALED AL-DEEB, Associated Press Writer Thu Jul 24, 11:33 AM ET

TRIPOLI, Libya - Libya has halted all of its oil deliveries to Switzerland and barred Swiss ships from its ports to protest the arrest of Moammar Gadhafi's son in Geneva, a state-run shipping company said Thursday.

Libya's General National Maritime Transportation Company stopped oil shipments to Switzerland on Wednesday, said the head of the company, Ali Bilhajj Ahmed. The company says it is the only Libyan-based firm supplying oil to Switzerland.

Libya supplies more than 50 percent of Switzerland's crude imports, which totaled some 2.5 million tons in 2007, according to the latest available Swiss government figures. Nonetheless, the Swiss Petroleum Association said the country could cope with any cutoff and arrange to buy the oil elsewhere.

The oil freeze was Libya's latest action in response to the arrest last week of Hannibal Gadhafi and his wife. Police arrested them on July 15 at a luxury hotel in Geneva for allegedly beating two of their servants, according to their lawyer. They were released on bail two days later and left the country.

Libya has recalled some of its diplomats from Switzerland, suspended the issuing of visas for Swiss citizens, reduced the number of flights to Switzerland and has detained two Swiss nationals on various charges, the Swiss Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

Switzerland, in turn, warned its citizens not to travel to Libya.

Ahmed, of the Libyan shipping firm, would not provide a figure on the amount of oil involved, but he said the cutoff was appropriate, calling it the "least we should do."

The Swiss Foreign Ministry and the Swiss branch of Libya's state-owned oil company Tamoil declined to comment Thursday on the oil cutoff.

The Swiss Petroleum Association said the country could cope with a halt of oil deliveries from Libya.

The association's managing director, Rolf Hartl, said he has so far not received confirmation of a Libyan cutoff. He said any halt in supplies would not result in long lines at Swiss fuel stations and that sealing off the Tamoil refinery in Collombey in southern Switzerland would take two weeks.

In addition, the amount of oil coming from Libya could quickly be purchased elsewhere, Hartl said. Switzerland also has oil reserves that could be used, he added.

Also Thursday, the Libyan government organized a demonstration by employees of the Libyan shipping company in front of the Swiss Embassy in Tripoli. About 500 people chanted slogans and distributed flyers calling for an official apology to Gadhafi, his son and all the Libyan people.

The company also said Swiss ships will be prevented from entering Libyan ports and from unloading their goods.

"Unless the coming hours witness a closure of this file, which is a fabricated and an illegitimate, and unless the Swiss authorities issue an official apology to Gadhafi, his son and the Libyan people, escalating measures will be taken," the company said in a written statement.

The daily Tribune de Geneve reported that two of Gadhafi's domestic servants claimed Gadhafi and his wife repeatedly beat them at the hotel with a belt and a hanger. It said a Tunisian woman was hospitalized.

Lawyer Alain Berger has said Gadhafi and his wife reject the allegations.

The 32-year-old Gadhafi has had previous run-ins with the law for violent behavior in Paris.

Switzerland has dispatched a diplomatic delegation to Tripoli to give the Libyan authorities more details on the arrest "to prevent a crisis between the two countries," the Swiss Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

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Associated Press writers Maggie Michael in Cairo, Egypt, and Eliane Engeler in Geneva contributed to this report.