It was all a big misunderstanding, not an ’embarrasing ordeal’ was how representatives of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service summed up the events involved in the interrogation and partial strip-searching of Saudi Arabian diplomat, Fawaz Abdul Rahman Alshubaili, on local soil on Monday evening.

’I take full responsibility for what has transpired in relation to this affair,’ Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Special Intelligence, Raymond Craig, said at a press conference at the Police Administration Headquarters on Sackville Street, Port of Spain.

The press conference was held to address the visit which police made to Alshubaili’s hotel room at the Hyatt Regency hotel on Monday.

Alshubaili, who was in the country on behalf of his government to process visa applications for local Muslims hoping to make this year’s Holy Pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, was interrogated and forced to take off his shirt by the officers, one of whom was identified as Craig.

The whole incident left some members of the Muslim community outraged and asking for an apology from the Commissioner of Police James Philbert.

But yesterday, Craig said, ’Mr Alshubaili was not targeted as a Muslim.’

He maintained that when the police received the information, which they then used to get documentation to enter Alshubaili’s room at the Hyatt, it was not because of any anti-Muslim sentiment.

’At no time did the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service try to embarrass any Muslim individual in our society; when we received the information it was never said what religious persuasion the individual belonged to,’ Craig said.

However, the searching of a diplomat on mission in a country is prohibited, according to the protocol set out for their treatment under the United Nations Vienna Convention. The convention also states that it is the responsibility of the receiving country, in this case Trinidad and Tobago, to protect the visiting diplomat’s documents, and that the premises from which the diplomat carries out work on behalf of a diplomatic mission should be ’inviolable’ and cannot be entered by any agents of the receiving State, unless on the request of the diplomat. In this case, diplomatic functions-the issuing of Saudi Arabian visas -were being carried out in a room under Alshubaili’s name.

But during the press conference, Craig said the privileges and immunities afforded to diplomats did not extend to them in every country they visited, and Alshubaili was not accredited to Trinidad and Tobago. He said while Alshubaili did present a diplomatic passport, from his knowledge of international terrorism and drugs, many individuals use diplomatic passports as aids in their plot.

Craig said, ’Information came to hand and that information was accessed and in our view we felt that that information could have negatively affected national security in T&T.’

He said documents were then attained to go to Alshubaili’s room. He denied that the information he received was related to Alshubaili’s possible possession of arms and ammunition.

’Five or six police officers accompanied me to the Hyatt hotel in Port of Spain,’ Craig explained.

He said Alshubaili’s location was of particular importance because, ’we know the Hyatt hotel is the major venue for CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting)’, which will be held here later this month.

Craig said when he enquired about Alshubaili’s purpose in the country and saw the visa forms and that he was in possession of a Trinidad and Tobago passport, his suspicions grew, as it was not at all normal to have visas issued in a hotel room.

’I made several telephone calls. I was able to verify what he told me about his presence in T&T. We had a discussion. I asked him about Saudi Arabia. I was satisfied his presence did not impact national security. I apologised. He (Alshubaili) told me he was leaving the following day (Tuesday),’ added Craig, who said the Saudi Arabian man’s trip was not cut short because of his experience with the police.