Libya cuts oil supplies to Switzerland

Motassim Bilal Qaddafi

Libya implemented its threat of cutting oil supplies to Switzerland over the arrest of the Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi's son in Geneva.

The country has banned shipments of crude oil and refined petroleum products to the Swiss and barred Swiss ships from its ports.

Supplies affected are those transported by ships that are operated by Libya's state shipping company, Libya's General National Maritime Transportation Company. Muammar Qaddafi's youngest son, 32-year-old Motassim Bilal Qaddafi is an advisor of the state-owned company.

The incident leading up to the halting of oil supplies began when Qaddafi's son along with his wife was arrested on July 15 at a hotel in Geneva, after allegedly hitting two domestic employees and were charged with maltreatment. As a result, Motassim Bilal Qaddafi spent two nights in a cell and his pregnant wife was under arrest in hospital before they were released on bail of 500,000 Swiss francs (USD 490,000), the Earthtimes wrote.

Libyan's demonstrating outside the Swiss embassy

The incident led to employees of the Libyan shipping company demonstrating outside the Swiss embassy in Tripoli, according to al-Arabiya news channel. About 500 people chanted slogans and handed out leaflets calling for an official apology to Qaddafi, his son and all the Libyan people.

Elsewhere, the news channel said that Libya will withdraw its deposits from Swiss banks if the Swiss didn't apologize while the Swiss National Bank said the deposits amounted to about 4 billion euros last year.