An Australian family says they are “devastated” by the imprisonment of an innocent father-of-three who has been held “hostage” in an Iraqi jail for three years in appalling conditions as his health deteriorates alarmingly.
Australian engineer Robert Pether was jailed in April 2021 after trying to get paid by the Iraqi government for work he had done in the country.
On Wednesday, his wife Desree Pether made a direct appeal to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong for “more to be done”.
Desree Pether (pictured left) has made a desperate appeal to Australia’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister to step up their efforts to free her husband, Robert Pether (centre).
On Thursday he told Sydney radio station 2GB’s Ben Fordham that he had a message for Mr. Albanese and Mrs. Wong who comes from Robert himself.
“Please do absolutely everything you can and do more (to get Robert released),” he said.
‘Much more should or could be done.
‘We want him at home. We want this nightmare to end.
‘It is a very crowded prison.
“It’s not like a prison in Australia, the conditions are quite harsh.”
It is understood Pether has been languishing in an overcrowded cell where the lights remain on 24/7.
“Robert’s health is deteriorating,” Mrs Pether said.
“He was never sick before he was arrested and has a serious skin condition that has gotten exponentially worse since he was arrested.”
Before his imprisonment, Mr Pether suffered from melanoma and since being in prison, lesions and moles have appeared in places where cancerous growths were previously removed.
The photos were sent to a doctor in Italy who recommended a new round of surgery, but that is impossible in the unsanitary conditions of the prison.
The 47-year-old also reportedly suffers from bladder and kidney infections, as well as depression.
Pether said the stress “of being in prison for three years trying to prove you’re innocent when no evidence is accepted” was taking its toll on her husband.
Pether says he can see “in his eyes” the toll his father’s absence has taken on the couple’s three children.
In a trial that lasted just 15 minutes, Pether and fellow Egyptian Khalid Radwan were found guilty of deception and both received five years of “harsh imprisonment” and a $16 million fine.
The two were arrested after being lured to an office with the promise of settling their pending claim for not being paid for work they had done at the billion-dollar Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) offices in Baghdad.
‘He disappeared for days. “We didn’t know if they were alive or dead,” Pether said Thursday.
His treatment has drawn condemnation from the UN, which has noted 30 violations of international law in the case and classified Pether as a “hostage.”
In an emotional Facebook post earlier this month, Pether shared more about his own stressed state.
‘I miss him. All the time,” she wrote.
‘He should no longer be illegally imprisoned in Iraq. He should NEVER have been caught, arrested and jailed in the first place! The treatment of two innocent men is absolutely atrocious!’
She revealed Thursday that the family is struggling to cope.
Pether was arrested when he went to an Iraqi government office to resolve an outstanding payment claim.
“We’re all devastated, they’re devastated,” she told Sydney radio station 2GB interviewer Ben Fordham on Thursday about her children.
‘Looking at the impact on them, you can see it in their eyes. Boys became men while he was away.
‘It’s so unbearable. “They were very proud of him, of what he was doing and then this happened.”
Mrs Pether, who is currently in Ireland with her children, said trying to explain to the couple’s eight-year-old daughter “that bad things happen to good people… is very difficult”.
She said her husband was “one of “Australia’s best engineers.”
“He’s out there on the world stage,” he said.
“I could have done anything I wanted, literally faced any problem, but I really wanted to make a difference.”