David Maddox: A lesson in Libyan compassion

Last night I attended an excellent concert at the Usher Hall organised by the Swiss Consulate in Edinburgh. Among the guests was Scotland's SNP Minister for Culture, External Affairs and the National Conversation Mike Russell.

It reminded me that while this summer will be forever remembered for Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill sending the Lockerbie bomber Al-Megrahi home on the grounds of compassion (heroic scenes pictured), Switzerland has also had its difficulties regarding Libyan prisoner transfers.

On 15 July 2008 Colonel Gaddafi's son Hannibal and his wife were arrested by the Swiss authorities in a luxury hotel in Switzerland for allegedly beating up two servants.

The response by Libya was to first cut ties with the Alpine nation and then arrest two Swiss citizens in Libya four days later, essentially turning them into hostages.

The two employees of engineering company ABB Ltd - Max Goeldi and Rachid Hamdani - were locked up for alleged breaches of immigration rules.

Since Gaddafi jnr's arrest he and his wife have been released on bail and the servants have withdrawn their complaint after receiving compensation.

But the dispute between the two countries has dragged on for over a year, and on Thursday (20 August) just as Mr MacAskill was providing succour to Libya by releasing Megrahi, the Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz formally apologised to Libya and agreed to have the original arrest looked at by an independent arbitrator in London. This, he understandably said, was to get the two Swiss citizens home, although it has been suggested that he was under huge pressure from businesses.

So all in all Col Gaddafi had a very good day on Thursday and his own brand of international diplomacy and lack of compassion got him everything he wanted to mark the 40th anniversary of his dubious dictatorship. The one thing though that can be said is that the Swiss, it seems, had much less choice in the matter than Mr MacAskill.