Geneva - In July, employees at a Geneva hotel decided to call the police to complain about the treatment of two servants at the hands of their foreign bosses, setting in motion a chain of events that would cast a dark cloud over Switzerland's relations with Libya. The foreign bosses who were allegedly beating their servants were Hannibal, 32, and his pregnant wife, the son and daughter-in-law of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
A subsequent arrest and two-day detention of the couple, who were released back home on 500,000 dollars bail, angered the Libyan leadership and first family. Hannibal's sister, Aisha, known for her bright blond hair and penchant for occasionally wearing tight outfits, threatened "eye for an eye" retaliation against the Swiss and demanded an apology.
More recently, a senior diplomat, Abd-'Ati al-Obeidi, said Libyan patience was not unlimited.
A report leaked earlier this week by Swiss experts indicated that while the Geneva police had done nothing wrong, per se, they could have taken a more "nuanced" approach and acted more "sensitively."
Though the law enforcement officials had not violated any laws, they could have behaved differently, and, for example, allowed the couple to contact their embassy faster and used a smaller task force to arrest the two.
Some observers in Switzerland have complained that the Geneva police were being sacrificed at the altar of diplomatic relations and that their behaviour was acceptable.
A part of the problem, some suggest, beyond the treatment of the servants, was the attitude of Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey, who was apparently perceived in Tripoli as being paternalistic.
Moreover, internal Swiss politics played a role, pitting the socialist top diplomat against her right-wing opponents.
At the same time, it is quite possible the elder Gaddafi is also using the row to bolster himself inside Libya.
This was not the young Gaddafi's first run-in with the European law. Hannibal had gotten himself in trouble in both Italy and France for violent and erratic behaviour twice in the last seven years prior to the Geneva incident.
Hannibal and family have since settled out of court with the two servants, though the fate of the missing brother of one of the servants remains unclear. The two remain in Switzerland for the time being.
Meanwhile, the Libyans are demanding a formal apology from the Swiss government, which has not been forthcoming.
So far, Tripoli has canceled all flights between the two nations, in a gradual process which culminated this month, and hampered the operations of two Swiss businesses in Libya. Its police also arrested two citizens of Switzerland for supposedly violated the terms of their visas. They were later released.
Also, diplomats have been recalled and there have been threats that oil shipments to the landlocked European country would be cut. Libya covers close to half of Swiss oil imports.
For Geneva, which can be seen as a playground for the wealthy, this event is unlikely to change much and the patrons of Swiss upscale institutions will most likely not be scared away by the Gaddafi incident.
The Swiss report on the police was part of an independent committee set up in August to look into the event.
Tripoli is also supposed to prepare a parallel probe from its side, but is still threatening that unless Switzerland changes positions, further sanctions, including the withdrawal of Libyan capital from banks in the European confederation, might be on the way.
In 2009, steps will have to be taken to calm down the rhetoric out of Tripoli and get relations back on track with Bern, before this diplomatic row reaches a point from which it will be difficult to pull back, something not impossible when dealing with an autocrat and his family.
At the same time, this is not the first spat between the countries over family. In 1997, a row ensued when the Swiss did not grant a study visa to another son of the Libyan leader, but the argument was solved about a year later.
