Australian engineer Robert Pether has penned a handwritten note to Scott Morrison from his Iraqi jail cell, pleading for the prime minister to intervene and warning he is effectively being held hostage.
Pether has been behind bars for almost eight months after being lured to Iraq and arrested in relation to a dispute between his firm and the Central Bank of Iraq over the construction of its new Baghdad headquarters.
In August, Pether was sentenced to five years in an Iraqi jail and fined $US12m over allegations his firm, CME Consulting, spent money that should have gone to an architect and a subcontractor.
The sentence devastated his Ireland-based family, including his wife, Desree, and three children, who say Pether has been punished for what is effectively a contractual dispute that belongs in civil courts.
Pether said he’d been tricked into signing a confession – written in Arabic – in front of a judge after being told it was a routine court record.
“Two months later I learned the document was my alleged confession,” he wrote. “The first time I saw a translation of this document was four months after this date and it was nothing like the statement I had given during the interrogation process.”
Pether said his family wasn’t told of his whereabouts for three weeks and he was not allowed to contact the Australian embassy until he’d spent four weeks behind bars.
The initial charges against him, he wrote, were disproven easily within 24 hours, but he and his colleague were held regardless. The new charges against him were only made clear when he got to his hearing.
Pether said he was only permitted to meet with his lawyers four months after his arrest and three days before his hearing.
“The lawyers were only provided with a portion of the case file prior to the hearing,” he said.
Pether said his legal team was denied access to documents that would have disproven the case against him.
“It would seem that we are effectively being legally held as hostages in order to force our employer to make a substantial payment to the [Central Bank of Iraq],” he said.
Pether acknowledged it was unusual for a prime minister to get involved, but he said the case had been politicised and required intervention above the foreign minister level. “Your support and assistance in finding a solution to such a novel and unique situation is greatly appreciated,” he wrote.
Desree Pether said her husband feels abandoned by Australia. She said her husband has lost 30kg while in custody and fears for his health, given he had a melanoma previously and is now long overdue for a skin check.
The Australian foreign minister, Marise Payne, has previously raised the case with the Iraqi government.
“We have sought clarity about, as I’ve said, the nature of the complaints that have resulted in Mr Pether’s detention,” Payne told Perth radio in May. “And if it is indeed a civil matter, a contractual matter, then we would seek for it to be treated in that way.”
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