Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit told a press conference that he had accepted the resignation of Justice Minister Hussein Megalli and Health Minister Yassin Hosban, but he alleged that their quitting from the Cabinet had ”no direct relation” with Shahin’s travel abroad.

Shahin was serving a three-year imprisonment after the State Security Court found him guilty of bribery in his bid to acquire a $1.2-billion contract for the expansion of the country’s sole oil refinery.

His abrupt and unjustified departure from the country was labeled by the press and the opposition as a scandal that sparked demonstrations across the country on Friday.

The authorities said that Shahin was allowed to leave to London at the end of February for medical treatment because his illness could not be cured locally.

Senior doctors at the Royal Medical Services defied this judgment and said that Shahin’s treatment was possible at home.

The resignation of the two ministers came less than 24 hours after King Abdallah sent a letter to Bakhit urging a “transparent legal steps” to punish those who had been involved in certain cases of corruption that were the focus of the public opinion over the past weeks.