An Iraqi judge ordered some two dozen officials released after determining there was no evidence that they conspired to bring back Saddam Hussein's banned Baath party, Iraq's interior minister said. Their release Friday came shortly after Iraqi officials started playing down the arrests of the officials from Iraq's three major security ministries and dismissing reports that they were believed to have been planning a coup.
Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani told The Associated Press that the investigating judge ordered the officials freed "because they are innocent" of allegations they were trying to restore the Baath party. Earlier Friday, al-Bolani told reporters that the charges were politically motivated by those trying to undermine the interior ministry.
According to him, 19 were freed from custody and that charges were to be dismissed against the remaining four who were not in custody. 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.
