The Irish wife of a man who has spent four years in an Iraqi prison on "fabricated" charges has told how she fears he will die behind bars.
Appealing for help, Desree Pether, from Elphin, Co Roscommon, said she and their three children were in a "new level of hell."
She said they had not seen her Australian-born husband Robert Pether, a construction engineer, since they left him at Dublin Airport in January 2021.
He was jailed in Baghdad amid a €20 million contract row between his Dubai-based employer and the Central Bank of Iraq, following delays in building the bank due to Covid restrictions on the importation of construction material.
The UN’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention claimed Mr. Pether was "forcibly disappeared" and called for his immediate release.
Speaking recently to the Joe Finnegan Show on Shannonside Northern Sound, Ms. Pether told how the 49-year-old was due to be released on January 8 – before new allegations were made against him of money laundering.
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"Forcibly disappeared"
"He’s absolutely devastated," she said. "We were supposed to find out about his release… we waited all over Christmas, it was absolute agony.
"Then on January 8, we heard nothing, and then we found out that they had ended that sentence and detained him pending a new fabricated sentence. And they didn’t even pretend they were releasing him, they did nothing, they just carried it on.
"We’re in a new level of hell, because this new fabricated case, if it goes ahead, equates to a life sentence and we’ll never get him home."
Ms. Pether told how she had been to the Iraqi embassy in December "and begged them to let him go early so he didn’t miss another Christmas."
She said that she and her children, Flynn, 21, Oscar, 19, and Nala, 12, had got the family home all ready for his return.
"It’s just so horrible seeing the pain in my children’s faces," she said. "It’s just another blow and we can’t see a way out of it this time, it’s so hard. It breaks my heart having to tell them one blow after another."
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"This equates to a life sentence"
She added: "The kids were so proud of their dad for going over there, the same as any specialist like a surgeon who goes to help a war-torn country. He had very specialist skills, and he went to help them rebuild."
She said that Mr. Pether and his Egyptian colleague Khalid Zaghoul Radwan, who faces the same charges, "have been so cruelly treated when they are completely innocent and they have just been used as pawns."
She told the programme: "It’s still in the investigation stage and we desperately need it to not go to a full-blown trial… a foregone conclusion with no due process.
"This equates to a life sentence and Robert has categorically said he will not survive it.
"Unless there is some miracle and someone can stand up and fight for Robert, this is it, this is the end.
"This case has a maximum sentence of 15 years and a financial penalty of up to $100 million against two employees personally. It’s so outrageous, it’s so obviously a set-up and I’ve tried everything. I’ve got nothing left and I cannot find a way to get him home."
She said her husband was in poor health, as was she.
"He’s 49 and he looks like he’s in his 70s, he’s skin and bone," she said.
"I have MS [multiple sclerosis], I had a fall last week and fractured my rib. I have a list of health issues which I never had before as a result. I’m just getting sicker and sicker and it’s really hard on the kids to see me deteriorate so much."
*This article was originally published on Extra.ie.
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