**Libya has sentenced two Swiss businessmen to 16 months in jail amid a row over the arrest last year of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s son in Geneva.**Max Goeldi and Rachid Hamdani, detained since July 2008, were convicted of tax evasion and immigration offences.
Libya has said their trial and the Swiss “aggression” against Col Gaddafi’s son Hannibal are not linked.
Hannibal Gaddafi and his wife were briefly held in Geneva in 2008 over allegations of abusing two servants.
The charges were later dropped, but the case angered Tripoli.
Their arrest sparked retaliatory measures from Libya, including cancelling oil supplies, withdrawing billions of dollars from Swiss banks, refusing visas to Swiss citizens and recalling some of its diplomats.
Libyan officials said the Swiss businessmen were also fined 2,000 dinars ($1,700; £1,000) each, but had the right to appeal.
The case has sparked outrage in Switzerland, and the government has been criticised for its handling of the affair.
Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz visited Tripoli in August and issued a public apology for the arrest of Hannibal Gaddafi.
But he failed to secure the return of Hamdani, a construction company employee, and Goeldi, Libyan operations manager of engineering firm ABB.