WASHINGTON – A Qatari diplomat who sparked a bomb security scare after sneaking a smoke in an airplane’s bathroom will likely be sent home or transferred to another country, U.S. officials said Thursday.

Officials from various agencies were involved in internal discussions as well as talks with Qatar’s embassy about how to deal with Mohammed Al-Madadi, who authorities said grabbed a surreptitious smoke in a jetliner’s bathroom during a flight from Washington to Denver and then joked about lighting his shoe on fire. Al-Madidi was released from custody on Thursday and headed back to Washington.

A State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. government was discussing the case with the Qataris and said the department had conveyed the seriousness of the matter to the Qataris.

No explosives were found on the plane and authorities said they don’t think Al-Madidi was trying to hurt anyone during Wednesday’s scare. He enjoys diplomatic immunity from U.S. prosecution and will not be criminally charged, authorities said. The State Department official said Qatar had not yet informed the administration how they will handle the case.

The official said Qatar had not yet decided Al-Madidi’s fate but were leaning toward transferring him out of the U.S. as possible.

Qatar’s action will affect how the administration responds to the incident, according to that official and others who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the unresolved nature and sensitivity of the matter.

Under international protocol — the 1961 Vienna Conventions on Diplomatic Relations — diplomats in foreign countries enjoy broad immunity from prosecution. That immunity can only be waived by a diplomat’s home government, something that is rarely requested and even more rarely granted.

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