A former Dubai resident detained for five years in Iraq over a contract dispute will take time to adjust to freedom and is determined to fight for vindication after the “dark times” he endured.
Australian engineer Robert Pether was released from prison in Baghdad in June last year but was barred from leaving the country due to financial claims linked to a case over a contract dispute between his employer and authorities in Iraq.
“The concept of freedom is still kicking in for me because it's been a long time and I'm still adjusting,” Mr Pether, 50, told The National in his first interview since returning to Dublin on Monday.
Spending time with family who now live in Ireland will be his main priority. He will soon have surgery to treat high-risk skin cancer, which deteriorated while he was in prison. “I'm having surgery in the next few days,” he said. “But it will be fixed, there's no doubt about that. We caught it in time.”
'No innocent person should suffer this'
He will consult lawyers over the next few months to address the “huge injustice” he suffered.
Mr Pether and his Egyptian co-worker Khaled Radwan, both of whom lived in Dubai, travelled to Baghdad in April 2021 and were locked up four months later. They were fined $12 million over a contract dispute between their employer CME Consulting and the Central Bank of Iraq.
“I'm looking for accountability,” he told The National. “I was innocent when I was arrested. We did nothing wrong.
“What was done to us was not reasonable, was not justice. So there does need to be accountability. I'm not at a stage where I'm going to identify who we're looking at for that accountability. I will let lawyers keep working on that.”
Mr Pether did not share details of the legal case he plans to pursue and is aware of the challenging road ahead.
“It will all be made known when the time is right. What we went through, no one, no innocent person should have to be subjected to … that is not something that you can just snap your fingers and say it's finished.
“There needs to be some balance and that's where we're seeking accountability among the people who caused this, the people who are truly responsible for it … so that we feel more vindicated.”
'Don't give in'
Mr Pether sought to give strength to others who have been wrongly incarcerated and their families.
“Do not give up. That's really all I could tell them. Do not give in. You have to keep fighting,” he told The National. “There is an end. There is a way through … arbitrary detention is completely unjust but unfortunately it still happens. It will continue to happen. You just have to be strong enough to get through it.”
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in 2021 deemed that Mr Pether’s detention breached international law and said he was being used as leverage in a commercial dispute.
Mr Pether said his pursuit of justice also aims to deter those who consider detain innocent people unjustly.
“The fact that we did suffer a huge injustice … it's going to be a long path but it's one that needs to be crossed,” he said. “This is not just for me, this is for other people … because it will happen again. I will not be the last … if we do bring in some measures of accountability and a way to achieve accountability, it will help the next person. And perhaps give people thought, to not put people into arbitrary detention.”
His first priority is his family and he will then set aside time with lawyers. “In terms of actually making something happen, it will take months or years,” Mr Pether said. “I'm prepared for that, as is my wife. We've already discussed it, this is part of the healing process for us.”
Not if but how to survive prison
Conversations with his wife, Desree, and children, Flynn, Oscar and Nala, gave him courage.
Speaking to former hostage Terry Waite, the Archbishop of Canterbury's special envoy kidnapped in Beirut in 1987 and held in captivity for five years – four of those in solitary confinement – helped him make crucial choices to draw on his inner resilience to survive his prison ordeal.
“Terry and I started talking soon after my incarceration,” Mr Pether said. “The very first discussion we had, he said that I needed to make some hard decisions, and I had to decide how I was going to survive. There was never any question of if, it was always how.”
Building mental fortitude, distancing himself from other prisoners and trying to keep tight control of his emotions proved to be his lifeline.
“I personally decided I'd be better off isolating myself, relying on myself and my own internal strength,” Mr Pether told The National.
His wife Desree and the embassy sent over books and immersing himself in reading took him away from the prison walls. After his release from jail last year, Mr Pether lived in a secure compound and his reading continued to give clarity of mind.
“Reading books was a form of escapism that helped me build up my strength,” he said. “Basically that was how I got through the years in prison and the last 12 months when I was hidden away somewhere quietly and I had a few people I would speak to daily and catch up with …
“I’m a fairly voracious reader, so anything I could get my hands on, I was reading. It was a way to fill in time and also a way to keep my brain moving, so that I could think about things more clearly.”
Family lifeline
The Pether family have spoken about being robbed of sharing personal milestones, from graduations to birthdays.
“There were a lot of dark times but we got through them,” he said. “My wife used to prop me up when I was really down. There were times it was a roller coaster … each time it went down, it went further down and that was hard because then you had to drag yourself back up from there.”
He initially thought the case would be resolved quickly, then as months and years passed there were times he lost hope.
“I'll be honest, there were times when I did question that – 'will I actually go home?’” Mr Pether said. “It was a matter of trying to avoid the really dark patches, keeping the mental strength to know I would go home. It was just a question of when.”
Conversations with his wife and children encouraged him to keep going.
“My family was always on my mind, my wife especially, and there was never any question of not getting back,” he said. “What she was doing was not just fighting for my freedom. She was also propping up myself, our children, holding our family together. And it was her strength, sharing her strength with me, that helped.”