DOHA — The Amir of Qatar, His Highness Shaikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, sacked two cabinet members and his own chief of staff yesterday amid a corruption scandal over fraudulent share dealings, the official QNA news agency reported. However, no reason was given for the dismissals, including any suggestion that the officials were involved in the scandal. The emir fired the minister of state for cabinet affairs, Mohammed bin Issa al-Muhannadi, without announcing a replacement. He also named Faisal bin Abdullah al-Mahmud as the new minister of religious affairs after sacking Mohammed al-Manaa. The emir's private secretary, Sheikh Abderrahman bin Saud al-Thani, was promoted to the job of chief of staff to succeed Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Saud al-Thani. Both men are members of the ruling family. | Just some family business. Dom Corleone would understand. |
In reporting on the shuffle, Al-Jazeera television referred to a scandal broken by the the Qatari press in March in which three unnamed ministers and several businessmen suspected of fraudulent activities had allegedly been questioned by the chief prosecutor. The activities were said to have been connected with the sale of the state-owned Qatar Gas Transport Co Ltd (Nakilat) at the beginning of the year. The country's energy minister, Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiya, has said that the names of 131 deceased people had been discovered on subscriptions for Nakilat shares worth five millions riyals (about 1.4 million dollars). He also said that 72 individuals had subscribed under the names of 3,152 different people. | Gotta be pretty stupid to get caught embezzling in natural gas in Arabia. |
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