TRIPOLI (AFP) –The trial of one of two Swiss businessmen barred from leaving Libya for 18 months and charged with illegal business activities has been postponed, their lawyer said on Saturday."The judge has decided to postpone until January 16 the trial of Max Goeldi, and is demanding that he appears in court," Salah Zahaf told AFP.The trial of the other Swiss businessman, Rashid Hamdani, would be held on Sunday, Zahaf said. It was not clear if Hamdani would follow Goeldi's example and fail to appear for the hearing.Goeldi and Hamdani, who have been holed up at the Swiss embassy, were due to appear in court in December but legal proceedings were delayed at the request of the defence.The pair have been caught up in a diplomatic row between Switzerland and Libya over Swiss authorities' treatment of leader Moamer Kadhafi's son Hannibal.Goeldi, a senior manager at the Swedish-Swiss engineering giant ABB, and Hamdani, who works for a small construction firm, were detained after Hannibal Kadhafi and his wife were briefly arrested in Geneva in 2008 when two hotel servants complained he had mistreated them.The servants later dropped the allegations, but Goeldi and Hamdani have not been allowed to leave Libya since July last year.In a separate case, the two Swiss businessmen were sentenced to 16-month jail terms in absentia on November 30 for overstaying their Libyan visas.They are appealing against that sentence, with the next hearing due to be held January 10 for Hamdani and January 14 for Goeldi, according to their defence team.UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has called for their release, describing Tripoli's treatment of them as "unfair."
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