Swiss appeals against his sentence in Libya
The Swiss businessman imprisoned in Libya has appealed against his four-month prison sentence.
Max Göldi’s lawyer Salah Zahaf confirmed the move on Wednesday. Göldi already submitted a request to Libyan authorities for a pardon.
According to Zahaf, Libya can take a decision to pardon Göldi at any time, whereas an appeal hearing could drag on for weeks or even months.
Göldi started a four-month sentence on February 22 after being found guilty of visa violations.
He has been prevented from leaving Libya since July 2008, shortly after the brief detention in Geneva of Moammar Gaddafi’s son Hannibal and his wife.
The Gaddafi couple were accused of mistreating two of their domestic staff. The charges were withdrawn after the servants accepted compensation.
Meanwhile, Libya’s ambassador to the United Nations in New York, Mohamed Shalgham, renewed his government’s call for Switzerland to lift its visa restrictions on Libyan officials and their relatives.
Shalgham said Switzerland was refusing to grant Schengen visas to 188 Libyans, which means they cannot travel freely between the 25 member states of Europe’s Schengen zone.
The ambassador said besides Moammar Gaddafi, the current chairman of the UN General Assembly, Ali Abdussalam Treki, as well as himself and his son were on the blacklist.
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