THE distraught wife of an Irish-based man released on bail after being held in jail in Iraq for more than four years said her husband is “completely unrecognisable” following his detention.
Robert Pether was released on bail earlier this week after being arrested in Iraq in April 2021 and later jailed on fraud charges.
The United Nations had described it as an arbitrary detention.
An Australian national, Mr Pether had been living with his wife Desree Pether in Elphin, Co Roscommon for a number of years.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Ms Pether said her husband is “not well at all” and “really needs to just come home so he can get the proper medical care he needs”.
She told the programme: “It was a shock. It was hard to be very happy to see him but also to see the state of him.
“He’s completely unrecognisable. It’s a shock to the system to see how far he has declined.
“I feel like a bus has hit me. It all happened so late last night.”
Ms Pether added that despite the grim jail situation, her husband’s cellmates were “very good to him”.
She explained that he fainted now and again from not eating enough, at which time those locked up with him would give him tea and honey.
Ms Pether called it “the best of a bad situation” and said she now hopes there is “light at the end of the tunnel”.
She added that her husband is still facing a travel ban in Iraq.
The travel ban may not be lifted for a few days, she explained, as it is the end of the working week in Iraq with Eid al-Adha being celebrated.
“We don’t know the exact stipulations on the travel ban but at least he’s out of the prison, and in a comfortable bed.”
Ms Pether said trying to get her husband home has been “beyond frustrating”.
“It has been a living nightmare every day. 18 hours a day, seven days a week,” she said, adding that this development was a small step in the right direction.
HUGE CONCERN
A mechanical engineer, Mr Pether had worked in the Middle East for almost a decade before taking on a rebuild of Iraq’s Central Bank headquarters in Baghdad in 2015.
Towards the end of the project, a dispute arose between the bank and the company Mr Pether worked for – Dubai-based engineering firm CME Consulting.
It landed Mr Pether and his Egyptian engineer colleague Khalid Radwan in prison, after the bank accused the men of stealing money from the project.
In 2023, the International Chamber of Commerce’s Court of Arbitration ruled that Iraq’s central bank was at fault in the dispute with CME, and ordered it to pay $13m to the company.
Simon Harris was informed of Robert’s release during a call with Foreign Minister Hussein of Iraq on Thursday evening.
He told Newstalk: “I am very pleased to have been informed of the release of Robert Pether, whose imprisonment in Iraq has been a cause of huge, huge concern.
“This is welcome news, it’s been a very long-running, and extraordinary distressing, time for Robert’s wife, for his three children, for his wider circle of family and friends in Roscommon.”
Mr Harris welcomed it as a first step to his being allowed to return to his wife and three children in Roscommon.
