Engineer Robert Pether’s family says international tribunal’s decision strengthens case for freeing him UN working group on arbitrary detention says it received allegations that Perther was subjected to ‘extreme cold, threats of death, humiliation and psychological abuse’ DUBAI: An Australian engineer’s wife, who says her husband was “maliciously prosecuted” and “unlawfully imprisoned” in Iraq in 2021, has renewed her plea for his release following an international tribunal’s decision. Engineer Robert Pether and his coworker Khalid Radwan were detained in April 2021 over a contractual disagreement between their company, Cardno ME, and Iraq’s Central Bank, reported The Guardian on Saturday. The company’s services were hired by the Central Bank to construct its Baghdad headquarters, yet the contractual relationship between them soured in 2020 over seven months of unpaid bills and the bank’s bid to modify the agreement. In February 2023, the International Chamber of Commerce’s International Court of Arbitration handed out a ruling in CME’s favor after finding the bank accountable for the contractual disagreement. According to The Guardian’s report, the tribunal’s decision was made public recently, after which, Perther’s wife, Desree Pether, renewed her plea for the immediate release of her husband, who has spent over two years in jail. She said the decision has strengthened the case for releasing Radwan and her husband. “However, it has been news to the Central Bank obviously since February, and still Robert and Khalid are unlawfully imprisoned and the Central Bank have advised they are pushing forward with the $50 million civil case against (them),” she said. “So even with a ruling in an international tribunal in favor of CME, the malicious prosecution against two innocent employees continues,” Perther’s wife was quoted as saying. The engineering firm had withdrawn its employees, but in April 2021 the duo was lured back to Iraq under the pretext of resolving the dispute. On allegations of having defrauded the bank, Pether and Radwan were apprehended during a meeting with bank officials and sentenced to five years in jail. They were also slapped with a fine of $12 million. Very recently, it was revealed that the dispute and the pair’s arrest had been taken up before the International Court of Arbitration. According to the tribunal’s recently published judgment, the bank was found in breach of its contractual commitments and ordered to pay the engineering firm $13 million. The tribunal deemed the amount as enough to cover the outstanding invoices, compensation, legal costs, and the release of a performance bond provided by CME. The Australian engineer’s trial was “deeply compromised” and the duo’s imprisonment was “arbitrary,” according to a report issued last year by a UN working group on arbitrary detention. Deeming the men’s detention as a breach of international law, the working group demanded their immediate release, saying it had received allegations that “(Pether) was exposed to extreme cold, threats of death, humiliation and various forms of psychological abuse.” Guardian Australia said Pether has also alleged that a “confession” statement used against him was mistranslated by a biased employee of Iraq’s Central Bank before being handed to court.