Washington, April 10: A Qatari diplomat who sparked a security scare by smoking in the restroom on a US plane and joking he was trying to set his shoe on fire will leave the United States shortly, a US official said Friday.
Qatar “has decided to reassign the diplomat and he will be leaving the country shortly,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said.
Mohammed al-Modadi, 27, the third secretary and vice consul of the Qatari embassy in Washington, was released without charge after the incident late Wednesday on a United Airlines flight from Washington to Denver.
Modadi raised suspicion during the flight after sneaking a smoke in the bathroom and then, when confronted, joking that he was lighting his shoes.
His comments raised fears of a repeat of the 2001 “shoe bomber” incident in which British national Richard Reid tried to blow up an airliner using explosives hidden in his shoe.
Crowley said that although law enforcement officials had concluded that the diplomat had no explosives and was not engaged in terrorist activity, US authorities “expressed the seriousness” of the incident to Qatar.
He added that Washington was “satisfied” with the actions Qatar had taken in response.
In a post-script to the bizarre incident, a State Department spokesman said earlier that Modadi was traveling to Denver to make a consular visit to a Qatari national being held in a Colorado prison.
US media reports identified the prisoner as Ali al-Marri, who pled guilty to conspiracy last year in connection with the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
On the plane, an air marshal wrestled the diplomat to the floor, the pilot declared an emergency, two F-16 fighters were scrambled and intercepted the airliner, and top White House officials briefed President Barack Obama, who was en route to Prague to sign a nuclear weapons reduction treaty with Russia.
Later officials said there were no explosives on the plane and it was all a misunderstanding.
Although smoking in airplane restrooms is a federal crime under US law, Modadi was not charged because he has diplomatic immunity.
–AFP