Foreign Affairs Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon says she has been told of ’some discontent’ being expressed by the government of Saudi Arabia, over the questioning of one their diplomats by the police, who searched his hotel room on Monday.

’I am aware there is some discontent, but I have not been informed formally,’ Gopee-Scoon said in a telephone interview from Jamaica yesterday, where she is on Government business.

Most people believe that all diplomats are immune from searches or arrest by the police. Gopee-Scoon said, however, that this is not true and was certainly not the case regarding Saudi Arabian diplomat Fawaz Abdul Rahaman Alshabaili.

’I am aware that he (Alshabaili) came in and he is the holder of a diplomatic passport. However, he is not a diplomat who is afforded special rights or privileges under the Geneva Convention, which gives him immunity from search,’ Gopee-Scoon said.

Gopee-Scoon, who is attending a three-day conference of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Latin America and the Caribbean (CALC) on Integration and the Rio Group, admitted that she did not have all the details as to what had happened on Monday. She pointed out, however, that the matter was not a diplomatic one.

’It is a matter for the Ministry of National Security and the police to act as they think is necessary,’ Gopee-Scoon said.

At a news conference yesterday, Deputy Police Commissioner Raymond Craig, who is in charge of the Special Branch and Crime Intelligence, said none of the officers who questioned Alshabaili searched his person.

He said the police were merely acting on information that raised concerns about a security risk and were armed with the required search warrants to search two rooms at the Hyatt Regency hotel, based on the information they received.

Alshabaili was in the country on official business, issuing visas to Muslims who wanted to visit Saudi Arabia to participate in the Hajj pilgrimage.

Gopee-Scoon explained that under the Geneva Convention, which governs international diplomatic relations, one can be the holder of a diplomatic passport, as is the case of local world cricket record holder Brian Charles Lara, ’but not be immune from search’. She said the Foreign Affairs Ministry will issue a media release on the matter today.