WASHINGTON — A Qatari diplomat was on his way to an official visit with an imprisoned al-Qaida sleeper agent when he touched off a bomb scare by slipping into an airline bathroom for a smoke, officials said Thursday as the diplomat prepared to leave the United States.

The diplomat, Mohammed Al-Madadi, was going to pay a consular visit to the prisoner, said Alison Bradley, a public relations executive hired to speak for the Qatari Embassy, and a State Department official.

The prisoner, Ali Al-Marri, a citizen of Qatar, is serving eight years after pleading guilty last year to conspiring to support terrorism. Al-Marri was arrested after 9/11, accused of being a sleeper agent researching poisonous gases and plotting a cyberattack.

Consular officials frequently visit foreigners held in the United States to make sure they are being treated well.

Bradley said Qatari diplomats have made multiple visits to Al-Marri in prison since he pleaded guilty. The right to such visits is guaranteed by international agreements, and the Bureau of Prisons approved this visit by Al-Madadi in advance, Bradley added.

Questions remained about why a diplomat on an official trip, such as Al-Madadi, would apparently flout airline security rules. Law enforcement officials said Al-Madadi later joked that he had been trying to light his shoe — an apparent reference to the 2001 so-called shoe bomber, Richard Reid.

No explosives were found on the plane, and authorities said they don’t think Al-Madadi was trying to hurt anyone during Wednesday’s scare. He has 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 it will handle the case but has assured the United States that Al-Madadi will leave the country. U.S. officials expect that to happen by today.

Wednesday’s scare occurred three months after the attempted terror attack on Christmas when a Nigerian man allegedly tried to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab went to the bathroom just before he allegedly tried to ignite a bomb in his seat. Since then, law enforcement, flight crews and passengers have been on high alert for suspicious activity on airplanes. That scare exposed major holes in the country’s national security and prompted immediate changes in terror-screening policies.

Some air travelers at Denver International Airport yesterday were amazed that Al-Madadi would not be charged with anything.

“I think it’s wrong. I’d get busted. I don’t think that (immunity) should be a factor,” said one of them, Hank DePetro, a retired psychologist from Greeley, Colo.

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.

But even without charges being pressed against him and without such a waiver, the United States could have moved to declare Al-Madadi “persona non grata” and expel him from the country. However, officials said they would not pursue this, given the close nature of U.S.-Qatari ties and the importance the country plays in the Middle East.

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