Two Romanian workers who were retained for suspected espionage activities in Iraq and later released returned home on Tuesday. The two were retained for taking pictures in a US military base near Baghdad but were freed last week after the news broke in the Romanian media, leading to the resignation of Foreign minister Mihai Razvan Ungureanu.

A plane bringing home troops from the 811 Infantry Batallion from Iraq landed in the city of Cluj, where one of the two Romanian workers, Adrian Ganceanu, left the plane. During his talks with journalists waiting for him, he did not provide many details about his retainment but said the responsibility for all that happened belonged to him.

He said that during the several months they were retained according to US military rules in Iraq, he and the other worker were visited by the Romanian consul to Baghdad once on November 26. The Romanian diplomat was not allowed to visit them afterwards.

Information about them being retained reached the years of Romanian PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu just recently, after a Romanian newspaper broke the news. The situation determined Tariceanu to demand the resignation of Foreign minister Ungureanu, which complied on Monday.