Pether remains under Iraqi travel ban year after release

Updated / Friday, Robert Pether photographed 14 weeks after release last year Sinéad Hussey By Sinéad Hussey Midlands Correspondent The Irish family of an Australian man who was released from prison in Iraq a year ago have said they have given "everything in the fight to get him home" but he remains under a travel ban in Baghdad. Robert Pether, a construction engineer, had been living with his wife and family in Elphin, Co Roscommon, before travelling to Iraq in 2016. Mr Pether had worked in the Middle East for almost a decade before taking on a huge rebuild of the Central Bank of Iraq's Baghdad headquarters. He was arrested toward the end of the project in April 2021 alongside his CME Consulting colleague, Egyptian Khalid Radwan, after the bank accused the men of stealing money from the project. After being held without charge for almost six months, and then subjected to a speedy trial, the two were each given a five-year jail sentence and fined millions of dollars. The United Nations said their detention was illegal and demanded they both be released. A 2022 UN report determined that the case contravened international law. Robert Pether was arrested in 2021 and released last year In 2023, an international court ruled that Iraq's central bank was at fault in the dispute. The Iraqi government lost the cases on appeal, but the two prisoners were not released. After serving his sentence, Mr Pether was released on conditional bail on 5 June last year and a travel ban was imposed. There had been expectation and hope at that time of his release that diplomatic efforts would ensure he would be allowed travel back to Ireland to his family, but this has never materialised. Instead, he remains in Baghdad in hiding, completely isolated, his family says. "He's in a secure compound but he's unable to leave the compound out of fear of being re-arrested," his son Flynn Pether said. Flynn Pether, who was 17 when he last saw his father, says the family are in contact with him all the time but he is struggling. The family have been unable to visit him in Iraq out of fear for their own safety. Robert Pether is an Australian citizen but, since he lives in Elphin, Co Roscommon, and his wife, Desree, and their three children, Nala, Oscar and Flynn, are Irish citizens, the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin is working to assist them. "The Irish Government have their hands tied until he's an Irish citizen," said Flynn Pether.