Hamdani reaches Tunisia, report says

Rachid Hamdani, one of two Swiss businessmen held hostage in Libya for 19 months, reached Tunisia in safety early Tuesday, according to a report from AFP.

The news service quoted Hamdani's French lawyer, Emannuel Altit, as saying that Hamdani had crossed the border into Tunisia, about 170 kilometres from Tripoli, where had been staying in the Swiss embassy.

He was apparently driven there in a vehicle by Libyan authorities.

The Swiss department of foreign affairs is expected to provide an update on his situation today.

The other Swiss businessman, Max Göldi, meanwhile, was released on Monday to Libyan authorities by the Swiss embassy in Tripoli to begin a four-month jail sentence for visa irregularities.

The two men became pawns in a diplomatic dispute between Libya and Switzerland that erupted in July 2008 after the arrest of Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's son and his wife in a Geneva hotel following complaints of mistreatment by domestic employees.

The allegations were dropped but Libya retaliated with a number of measures including the arrest of Göldi, head of engineering firm ABB in Libya, and Hamdani, an employee of a small Swiss company.

The dispute involved the European Union after Libya stopped issuing visas to citizens in the Schengen Agreement countries (including Switzerland) in retaliation for a Swiss blacklist of more than 180 high-ranking Libyans, including Colonel Gaddafi.