Robert Pether. Australian falsely accused, stuck in Baghdad, DFAT dithering

An Australian engineer jailed on trumped-up charges languishes in Baghdad after more than five years, while DFAT trains his accusers. Kim Wingerei with story.

It has been five years and three months since Desree Pether and her children last saw their husband and father, Robert Pether. After the Christmas holiday in January 2021, he was called to a meeting with the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI), where he worked as a civil engineer. At that meeting, Pether faced charges related to a dispute over payments to his Dubai-based employer, CME Consulting.

He was arrested and imprisoned on April 7, 2021, on trumped-up money laundering charges. During the subsequent interrogation and trial, it became clear to Pether and his accomplice, Egyptian Khalid Zaghoul Radwan, that they were being used as scapegoats in a conflict that had nothing to do with anything they had done.

Robert was tortured, mistreated, and forced to sign a “confession” written in Arabic.

a language he neither speaks nor reads. During the trial, the judge ignored her pleas and sentenced her and Radwan to five years in prison.

They were released in June last year but cannot leave Iraq until they pay a US$12 million fine, commensurate with the amount the CBI claims CME Consulting owes them.

The Australian Government has a contract with the CBI to provide anti-money laundering training to bank staff.

Meanwhile, Robert lives in Baghdad and is not allowed to travel. He is seriously ill, unable to work, and has limited means to earn a living, let alone escape a debt he does not owe.

human rights violations

Since his release in June 2025, Pether’s health has continued to deteriorate. According to Desree Pether, he has “a serious life-threatening skin condition and a previous history of aggressive melanoma. He requires appropriate specialist evaluation and treatment, but he remains stuck in Iraq and cannot access the level of care his condition requires.”

An evaluation by a clinical psychologist earlier this year said Robert “demonstrated serious existential psychological impairments, including widespread hopelessness, emotional exhaustion, profound detachment from self and others, and pervasive loss of meaning.”

This is just the latest of many authoritative reports submitted to DFAT, Penny Wong, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International during her ordeal. UN in 2022 Arbitrary Detention Working Group He declared that the detention of Robert and Radwan was arbitrary and violated their human rights.

Report It says Pether was denied unimpeded access to a lawyer, the charges were changed several times before and during the trial, and his lawyers were not given access to case files.

The UN report concluded: “The detention of the two men is being used to gain leverage in a high-stakes commercial dispute between CME Consulting and the Central Bank of Iraq and

That there was no proper legal basis for the continued deprivation of liberty of Messrs Pether and Radwan.

Another report in 2025 Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Punishment “He called on the Iraqi Government to ensure a full and independent investigation of the circumstances surrounding Mr. Pether’s arbitrary deprivation of liberty.”

There is no evidence that this happened. On the contrary, Pether was told that his rejection of the UN reports was an additional condition for his release from his current de facto house arrest.

DFAT support

It took 26 days after Robert’s arrest for an Australian consular officer to visit him in prison. The Egyptian consulate provided support to Radwan three days later.

According to Desree Pether, a dual citizen who lives in Ireland with her children, “Throughout this nightmare we have had a more constructive and supportive relationship with Irish and Egyptian Government officials than with our own Government.”

Numerous representations have been made to DFAT and Foreign Secretary Penny Wong since his arrest and release last year. DFAT appeared to occasionally classify Robert’s case as a “contract dispute”. DFAT is also on record as disagreeing with the UN reports and stating that Robert’s detention “was not arbitrary as it had gone through a court process”.

In February of this year, Senator David Shoebridge revived Robert’s case with Penny Wong. Wong said the government had asked for the travel ban to be lifted and had “represented it at the highest level” but had otherwise bordered on denying support for an Australian citizen who was wrongly accused, imprisoned and now detained.

Wong in particular was reluctant to draw any connection between DFAT’s training contract with the CBI and Robert’s case, claiming it was about mutual obligation for “counter-terrorism activities”.

David Shoebridge’s spokesman said: MWM, “Our position is that

Australia’s continued work with the Central Bank of Iraq is untenable so long as they continue to interfere with Robert’s case.

“This is an issue we have raised directly with DFAT, including in the Senate Estimates.”

The Greens and others are also considering calling for a Parliamentary inquiry into the incident, but the main focus now is on getting Robert Pether out of Iraq before it is too late.

NGOs warn of catastrophic impact, Penny Wong doesn’t care