Conflicting reports over Iraqi officials' release

[December 20, 2008]  BAGHDAD (AP) -- Conflicting reports arose Saturday over the release of nearly two dozen Iraqi officials and whether their arrests were related to accusations of conspiring to bring back Saddam Hussein's banned Baath party.

National Security Minister Sherwan al-Waili told The Associated Press 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. The director of al-Bolani's office, Ahmed Jaleel, reiterated Saturday that news of the release "is right."

And security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were close to the investigation, said none of the men had been released.

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

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

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

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

Some Iraqi politicians had speculated the arrests were part of 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 U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

On Friday, al-Bolani told reporters 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 Baath party was founded in Damascus, Syria, in the 1940s as a secular, socialist Arab nationalist movement, and its ranks once included a number of Arab Christian intellectuals. Later the party split along national lines, and it still rules in Syria.

The party ruled Iraq until Saddam's regime was ousted by a U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Outlawing the Baath party was the first official act of the U.S.-run occupation authority which ruled until June 2004. The purge of thousands of Baath party members from government jobs cost the country the services of skilled people who knew how to run ministries, university departments and state companies.

In February, Iraq's presidency council issued a new law that allowed lower-ranking former Baath party members to reclaim government jobs.

The measure was thought to affect about 38,000 members of Saddam's political apparatus, giving them a chance to go back to government jobs. It would also allow those who have reached retirement age to claim government pensions.

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Associated Press Writer Chelsea J. Carter contributed to this report.

[Associated Press; By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA]

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