Bahrain Minister of State Mansoor bin Rajab last night denied any involvement in laundering of millions of dinars. He also dismissed the news reports published in the local Press as “totally untrue.”

“I have neither been arrested nor interrogated,” he said in a written statement distributed to journalists at his weekly majlis.

“The Public Prosecution merely asked about issues relating to my ministry and employees,” he said.

He dismissed news reports published in the local Press as “totally untrue”. “What happened was normal as we live in a state where the law is sovereign. There is no difference, whatsoever, between a minister and a guard,” the minister said, according to our sister paper Akhbar Al Khaleej.

He said that while freedom of expressing opinion is guaranteed in Bahrain, “defamatory reports” are “unacceptable”.

“The Criminal Investigation Directorate summoned me to answer questions about myself and some employees in my ministry,” he said.

Bin Rajab claimed that he had reported to the CID and answered all the questions “out of commitment to the law”.

The minister expressed his pride in the law state embodied by His Majesty King Hamad.

He also paid tribute to Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa and Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander.

Bin Rajab said that he had instructed all ministry employees to fully co-operate with the CID.

Asked about the statement issued by the Interior Ministry, he said: “Has the statement mentioned my name? It said ‘a senior official’ rather than ‘a minister’. Ask them about this senior official.”

He described the search of employees’ offices and houses as “normal procedure and part of co-operation with the Interior Ministry”. Bin Rajab said his bureau’s director had been interrogated as a “witness”.

He also refused to say whether senior state officials contacted him after the news of his arrest and interrogation spread.-TradeArabia News Service