April 9, 1999
Following the lead of the United Nations, Switzerland suspended sanctions against Libya on friday after the surrender earlier this week of two suspects in the lockerbie bombing case.
The sanctions were suspended "until further notice,'' the Economics Ministry said. The U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions in 1992 in a bid to force Tripoli to surrender the two men for trial on charges they masterminded the 1988 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people.
Switzerland, because of its historic neutrality, is not a member of the United Nations. But the country slapped its own sanctions on Libya in 1994. Libya allowed the men to be flown to the Netherlands on Monday for trial under Scottish law.
The U.N. sanctions had banned military sales to Libya as well as all commercial air transportation. Swissair spokesman Erwin Schaerer said the airline plans to resume flights to Tripoli and wants to add a service to the eastern Libyan port of Benghazi.
