Australia has done little to free its citizen, Robert Pether, a civil engineer working on a new Iraq Central Bank building, who was essentially kidnapped by Iraqi officials.
Guests: Desree Pether, Senator David Shoebridge.
Interviewer and Producer: Cathy Vogan. Time: 35:06.
Robert Pether was the lead engineer for the construction of the Central Bank building in Iraq, but the bank stopped paying bills for the construction to Pether’s employer, Cardno Middle East Consulting (CME), an engineering company incorporated in the UAE.
After seven months of non payment, onsite works were halted, but the Governor of the Central Bank invited Pether and his deputy to a week of negotiations in Baghdad. On the last day, April 7, 2021, the governor appeared, followed by a dozen policemen who arrested Pether and his deputy. That was almost four years ago.
Disturbing details of what befell the two men are in findings by the U.N. Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
An Iraqi court charged Pether with fraud and fined him $13 million, roughly the same amount the Central Bank was in arrears.
The International Chamber of Commerce International Court of Arbitration ruled in favour of CME in February last year, finding that there had been no fraud, and the ruling was upheld in the Netherlands last year, but the men remained captive in an Iraqi prison under harsh conditions.
Pether’s wife Desree says this is plainly a hostage situation, and that her husband has years of payslips from CME to prove he was only an employee.
The Australian government has reportedly been involved in negotiations to free Pether, and Foreign Minister Penny Wong said she expected him to be unconditionally released on Jan. 8.
That did not happen, and his family has been informed that Pether will not be released, since new charges of ‘money laundering’ have just been laid, almost four years after he was first arrested. The family has also told Consortium News that the cost of Pether’s release is now $100 million.