Mystery deepens over Iraq arrests

CONFUSION yesterday surrounded reports of the release of nearly two dozen officials who had been detained for allegedly conspiring to bring back Saddam Hussein's banned Ba'ath party.

National security minister Sherwan al-Waili said that 19 men were still being held. The arrest order had originally included 23 officials, but four were not detained.

But interior minister Jawad al-Bolani insisted for a second day that the men, which included some from his ministry, had been released.

Security officials said none of the men had been released.

Al-Waili also said that the arrests and ensuing investigation were related to violations that included forgery and had "no relation with any political motivations".

It was unclear why the two ministers, both Shi'ites, were offering contradictory accounts about whether the men were still in detention.

Late on Friday, al-Bolani had said that the investigating judge ordered the officials released "because they are innocent" of allegations they were trying to restore the Ba'ath party, whose exiled leaders staunchly oppose the current government.

The director of al-Bolani's office, Ahmed Jaleel, reiterated yesterday that news of the release "is right".

The reasons for the arrests were further clouded by al-Waili's assertion that the case was not related to "electoral things, but it is a matter of forged documents that have no political motivations".

He added that "the case and charges raised have no relation with a coup as was said but is something related to violations inside the Interior Ministry".

Some Iraqi politicians had speculated the arrests were part of a campaign to bolster Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's power before two key elections next year – at the expense of Sunnis and secular figures.

Few details about those arrested were ever released, but it was difficult to see how the allegations could have posed a serious threat to al-Maliki, especially with nearly 150,000 US soldiers in Iraq.

On Friday, al-Bolani said that the charges were politically motivated by those trying to undermine the Interior Ministry.

He said 19 were freed from custody and that charges were to be dismissed against the remaining four who were not in custody.

The Ba'ath party ruled Iraq until Saddam's regime was ousted by a US-led invasion in 2003.

Outlawing the Ba'ath party was the first official act of the US-run occupation authority which ruled until June 2004.

The purge of thousands of Ba'ath party members from government jobs cost the country the services of skilled people who knew how to run ministries, university departments and state companies.