‘All the emotions are starting to hit’: son says Australian freed from Iraqi prison overwhelmed

Australian engineer Robert Pether has left Iraq after more than five years in detention, following a protracted campaign to secure his release.

Pether, 51, and his Egyptian colleague Khalid Zaghloul were arrested in Baghdad in April 2021, while working on a $1 billion project to build the new headquarters of the Central Bank of Iraq.

Australian officials on Monday escorted Pether to the airport, from which he planned to fly to Ireland to reunite with his wife and children.

An Iraqi judge found Pether guilty of deception in August 2021, although his lawyers said he should not be held responsible for the actions of the engineering company, CME Consulting.

His wife Desree has demanded his release ever since, asserting it was a travesty of justice and that his imprisonment amounted to arbitrary detention.

Pether’s health deteriorated during his imprisonment as he lost a lot of weight and battled cancer.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said she was relieved that he had been freed.

“The Australian government welcomes the decision by the Iraqi government to allow Mr Pether to leave,” she said.

“I spoke with Robert Pether this morning. I expressed to him our relief that he had been released and my hope that he recovers, but most importantly, I wished him well for his reunion with the family and for his recovery in the future.”

Wong said the government had made 280 separate representations “at all levels” since his detention.

The Iraqi government had insisted that Pether or the company must pay a $US12 million fine.

“I’ve made it clear that the Australian government doesn’t make monetary contributions in relation to alleged offences, but what we do do is make sustained advocacy a part of how we engage on these issues, and that’s what we’ve done,” Wong said.

Pether’s 23-year-old son Flynn, who has not seen his father since he was 17, said the Dublin-based family had been anxious right up until he boarded the plane.

“We initially said that we weren’t going to be excited until the plane took off, and he’s now cleared Iraqi airspace and he’s well on his way to Dublin now,” Flynn said.

“He’s excited. He’s saying that all the emotions are starting to hit him all at once, so you can imagine that this is somewhat like a huge relief for him, but also there’s probably a certain element of trauma attached to it as well.”

He said his father had been the victim of a terrible injustice.

“All the UN reports agree … that he is a completely innocent man who has been wrongly imprisoned for the last 5½ years, without any real evidence in a kangaroo court.

“It is completely wrong. It shouldn’t be allowed to keep going on like this, and we are looking forward to the next chapter, to rebuild our lives of what was taken and robbed from us in the last 5½ years.”

He said a $US12 million fine had been quashed as part of his father’s release.

“There is no realistic way that an employee should be held liable for up to $US12 million when he was a non-key stakeholder in the project. He was just an employee.”

Flynn paid tribute to his mother, Desree, for her relentless campaign and said he was grateful too for the Irish and Australian governments and groups including Hostage International.

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