Tripoli, May 18: Swiss businessman Max Goeldi is to be freed on June 12 once he has served out the whole of a four-month Libyan jail sentence for visa offences, his lawyer said on Tuesday.
“Max Goeldi will be freed on June 12, the day on which he will have completed his prison sentence,” said Salah Zahaf.
In March, Zahaf argued that the 53 days which Goeldi spent in prison after his arrest in July 2008 should be taken into account, bringing forward the date of his release.
Police had not followed proper procedures when Goeldi and another Swiss national, Rashid Hamdani, were arrested in a diplomatic row after the brief arrest in Geneva of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi’s son, Hannibal, he said.
Hannibal Kadhafi was detained after two of his domestic staff charged that he had mistreated them.
Goeldi and Hamdani, meanwhile, were held for 53 days and then released, but barred from leaving the country.
Hamdani was finally allowed to leave Libya in February, while Goeldi, a representative of Swiss company ABB in Libya, was sentenced to the four-month jail term for overstaying his visa.
–Agencies