EXCLUSIVE
A Sydney father claims he is being subjected to brutal bouts of torture while behind bars in a fetid Iraqi prison and fears he will die before seeing his heartbroken family again.
Robert Pether has been locked up in a heavily-guarded facility on the outskirts of Baghdad for the better part of half a decade after being arrested while helping the war-ravaged country rebuild four years ago.
The mechanical engineer – who has lost a third of his body weight since being thrown in prison – claims he is being unlawfully held captive as part of a sinister plot to extort millions of dollars from his boss’s construction company.
He was arrested, along with his colleague Khalid Zaghoul Radwan, after travelling to the Middle Eastern country’s capital city to discuss a multimillion-dollar blowout in the cost of building the new headquarters for the government-owned Central Bank of Iraq on April 7, 2021.
The duo were sentenced to five years in prison – and fined more than $16million – on what he says were ‘fabricated’ fraud charges.
The pair were expected to be released last month, until Iraqi officials suddenly revealed they planned to charge him with further money laundering offences.
Begging for help in a letter to Daily Mail , Mr Pether said he was terrified he would die in prison and never see his wife, Desree, or children, Flynn, 20, Oscar, 18, and Nala, 11, again.
‘My heart breaks for my family and what this has done to them. To my children. To my wife,’ he said in the letter.
‘For almost four years I’ve been unlawfully imprisoned in Iraq, subjected to horrendous human rights abuses and violations of international law.
‘To the special life events that are gone forever, the time that we will never get back.
‘I don’t want my wife to be a widow. I don’t want my children to have no father.
‘But I also don’t want them to suffer any more and I won’t let Iraq kill me slowly while I, an innocent man who only came to help Iraq rebuild, rot away, getting sicker and sicker in an Iraq prison.
‘I long to go back to . To dive and sail again. Two of my passions. I want my children to experience that with me now that they’re older.
‘I want to feel the sun on my skin and swim in the ocean. I long for a walk through the bush, listening to the sounds of the n bush.
‘I need people to fight for me. Believe me when I say I will not survive what equates to a life sentence in an Iraq prison.
‘I am extremely unwell, mentally and physically. I have a life-threatening skin condition; my body is covered in dangerous moles and I am a melanoma survivor, with a very high chance of more occurring.
‘I need regular monitoring by specialised dermatologists – something which is not available in Iraq.
‘I have been subjected to what equates to sanctioned torture since my Imprisonment in the name of medical care. I will not subject myself to that again in Iraq.’
The 49-year-old said he had been determined to help Iraq rebuild after the devastating Second Gulf War ended in 2011 because he wanted to ‘do something meaningful’ after more than two decades in the construction industry.
‘I went to Iraq seven years ago to help a country rebuild,’ he said. ‘I didn’t have to go there by any means. It meant long periods away from my family, which was not desirable.
‘But I was at a point in my life where I wanted to do something meaningful. Leave a legacy. Make a difference, and Iraq needed help from specialised Engineers.
‘I build specialised buildings like hospitals, labs, museums, even a space facility, and now a bank. I was working for a UAE-based company overseeing the construction of the Central Bank of Iraq.’
He said he was lured to Baghdad in April 2021 with the promise of resolving a dispute over unpaid payments for the work they had done on the $1 billion Central Bank building when government agents sprung their trap.
In a trial that lasted just 15 minutes, the pair were found guilty of deception.
‘I was arrested by 12 plain clothed Iraqi National Security Services officers, along with my colleague,’ he said.
‘I was forced to sign a pre-written, incriminating confession in Arabic, a language I don’t read or understand, after being locked in a cupboard, dehydrated and starved.
‘There was no opportunity to defend myself.
‘This has never been just a contract dispute…this has always been state-sanctioned extortion and I am a political prisoner.
‘No normal company would have the ability to manipulate this situation to such an extent and completely destroy the lives of myself, my colleague and our families.
‘Not long after my unlawful arrest, my employer took CBI to the ICC (International Chamber of Commerce) and won unequivocally in 2023.
‘The ICC finding there was NO FRAUD committed by my employer, and no grounds for imprisonment of their employees.
‘This international court ruling was upheld in a Dutch court last year, and then CBI’s appeal was rejected recently, this year.
‘In three international court settings, CBI have been found guilty, and my employer innocent, of all accusations.
‘That is, in every court setting outside of Iraq, their baseless accusations against me have not worked.’
Mr Pether’s treatment has attracted condemnation from the UN, which has noted 30 violations of international law in the case and classified Mr Pether as a ‘hostage’.
He accused Foreign Minister Penny Wong of doing too little to secure his release and implored the n government apply increasing pressure the Iraq government to free him.
‘I was due to be released at the end of my sentence on January 8, 2025,’ he said.
‘I wasn’t released. I’m still here and I’m still being subjected to more and more fabricated malicious prosecution.
‘I’m still a hostage of the Central Bank of Iraq.
‘A small handful of n members of Government have stood up for me and have continued to apply pressure on my behalf but my wife, friends and family have begged and pleaded every single one of them to help me.
‘I’m not a criminal. I didn’t break any laws. I would have hoped would have been proud of me.
‘I’ve always been a model citizen. Always worked hard. Always proudly represented on the world stage. I thought that meant something?’
He claimed his incarceration had been routinely ignored by n officials and that he was viewed as an inconvenience.
‘There is this idea that would always look out for a fellow Aussie and that it wouldn’t be OK to treat an n so horrendously.
‘That there would be people fighting for me, and there would be consequences.
‘There is nothing like that. Yes, there are ‘representations on my behalf’ a tally they proudly quote at every opportunity. But it’s not enough unfortunately
‘There have been other ns subjected to Kangaroo courts, fabricated charges like me, and the n Government has condemned the lack of due process, the lack of respect for international law.
‘The Foreign Minister has wished them happy birthday and sent them messages of support.
‘Others have received homemade baked goods in embassy bags. Not me. Not once. No condemnation.
‘ needs to fight for its citizens. So much more needs to be done. There are many of us wrongfully detained. There has to be consequences. There has to be fight.’
Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s office said n officials were doing everything they can to secure the distraught dad’s release, and reiterated their public calls for the Iraqi government to set both him and his colleague free.
‘It is deeply concerning that Mr Pether, and his colleague Mr Radwan, remain detained, having served the custodial sentence imposed on them by the Iraqi courts,’ the spokesperson told Daily Mail .
‘We call on Iraqi authorities to release Mr Pether and Mr Radwan immediately.
‘The n Government will continue to support Mr Pether and his family and to advocate for his interests and wellbeing.’
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese previously told Daily Mail he had personally approached the Iraqi government in a bid to secure Mr Pether’s release.
‘We have made enormous efforts, including direct contact by myself as Prime Minister, with leaders there, with continued representations, more than one hundred, by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade,’ he said.
‘My Government will always act in the interests of n citizens. And with Mr Pether, we are certainly doing whatever we can to secure his safe return.’