28/11/2009 Libya will not be invited to the Davos economic forum until it resolves its row with Switzerland stemming from the arrest of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi's son, a Davos spokesman said Saturday. "We will not invite Libya as long as its relations with Switzerland have not been normalized," Mathias Lufkens told AFP.
 
"It is exceptional for a country not to be invited," he said, noting that Kadhafi's son Seif al-Islam had attended previous gatherings of the annual forum, which brings political and business leaders together in the Swiss resort.
 
Kadhafi's son Hannibal was arrested in July last year in Geneva after two servants complained he had mistreated them in a city hotel, sparking a diplomatic row between Bern and Tripoli. The servants later dropped the allegations but two Swiss businessmen who were detained in Libya in retaliation for the arrests are still being held.
 
They had been due to return to Switzerland on September 6, but two days earlier daily newspaper La Tribune de Geneve printed pictures of Hannibal Kadhafi looking disheveled in police custody.
 
Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz, who in August had upset some politicians by apologizing for the arrest of Kadhafi, said the publication of the photos was seen in Tripoli "as a humiliation".
 
As well as detaining the two businessmen, Tripoli restricted air links, stopped issuing visas to Swiss nationals and shut the local offices of major Swiss companies ABB and Nestle.