The wife of a Swiss businessman held in Libya for more than a year has called on the country's leader Moammar Gadhafi to release her husband, saying he is being wrongfully punished for a dispute between Switzerland and Gadhafi's son.
"Colonel, it's time to be generous," Bruna Hamdani said in an interview published Friday in the Swiss daily Le Matin.
She said she hoped her husband, Rachid Hamdani, who is being held in Tripoli along with another Swiss businessman, Max Goeldi, would be released and return home soon.
Libya announced Thursday that the two will stand trial on charges of tax evasion and violating residency laws.
The businessmen were detained in July 2008 for alleged visa violations _ days after Swiss police arrested Hannibal Gadhafi and his wife for allegedly beating up their servants in a luxury hotel in Geneva.
The businessmen were allowed to return to the Swiss embassy in Tripoli on Monday after being held at an undisclosed location for nearly two months.
The Swiss Foreign Ministry has declined comment on the latest development, as did Goeldi's employer, the engineering firm ABB.
Bruna Hamdani said she almost fell off her chair in shock when her husband called after 53 days of being held incommunicado.
"They had been locked up in separate rooms (and) guarded without being able to talk to each other," in what appeared to be a private house, Bruna Hamdani told Le Matin.
"Physically they were taken care of," she said. "They could eat and receive medicine." But emotionally, being locked up without contact to the outside world was "torture," she said.
Hamdani said she failed to understand what detaining the two businessmen in Tripoli has to do with Gadhafi's anger over his son's arrest in Switzerland.
"Who do they want to punish in this affair? What are they trying to obtain?" she asked.
Hannibal Gadhafi was detained for two days in Geneva last year before being allowed to return home. The complaint regarding the alleged beatings was eventually dropped after the two servants received compensation from an undisclosed source.
Switzerland apologized for the manner of the arrest and subjected itself to possible compensation claims as part of an agreement reached in August in Tripoli, but later suspended the deal after repeated attempts to secure the release of Goeldi and Hamdani failed.
The dispute has badly damaged relations between the two countries and prompted calls in Switzerland for the resignation of Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz, who staked his credibility on the men's release.
In addition to detaining the men, Libya recalled some of its diplomats from Switzerland, suspended visas for Swiss citizens, withdrew funds from Swiss banks, stopped crude oil shipments and reduced flights to the Alpine country.
Libya escalated the dispute in September by transferring Goeldi and Hamdani to a secret location "for their own security," citing the purported "threat that Switzerland might free them militarily," according to a Libyan government letter quoted by the Swiss Foreign Ministry.
This prompted the Swiss government to suspend earlier this month the August deal aimed at repairing relations with Libya. Switzerland also tightened visa rules for senior Libyan officials, a move observers said could affect the Gadhafi family's ability to travel easily around Europe.
Libya has asked the Swiss embassy to make Goeldi and Hamdani available to Libyan authorities for trial dates and other court procedures. A date for the trial has yet to be set.
Hamdami said the two men are terrified that they might again be "kidnapped" if they attend court hearings.
"I have the impression he's more fearful," she said about her husband. "He does not want to go out of the embassy anymore."
She said she hoped the trial would end with the men being allowed to leave Libya soon.
"I'm not ready to wait another 16 months. Not even a month, nor fifteen days" she said. "Patience has its limits."
