Elphin father makes heartfelt plea to be allowed return home

An Elphin father has made a plea for support to allow him to travel home from Iraq after spending four and a half years in jail.

Robert Pether is an Australian citizen who had been living in Elphin with his family prior to his arrest. The father of three and construction engineer was jailed in a €20 million contract row and arrested in Baghdad on April 7th, 2021.

Now stranded in the country, he has written an open letter begging fellow Australians to “make a noise” and help get him home.

“I’m writing because this is my fifth Christmas away from my family, and because what has happened to me — and what is still happening — should never be normal for any Australian,” Mr Pether said.

“I am completely broken after being handled like an inconvenience.” Mr Pether wrote: “Here I am: alive, but not living,” he said.

“Released six months ago, but still not free. Not home, not safe, not truly out. Not receiving the medical treatment I desperately need. My life is suspended in a place where no one will state a lawful endpoint, and where my future can be tightened or loosened at will by people who understand exactly what leverage is.

“I am sick. I am writing this as someone whose physical and psychological reserves have been ground down for years by uncertainty, fear,” he said.

“The worst part is not even the pain or the illness. The worst part is what it has stolen from my children.” He said his children were receiving “phone calls and fragments” instead of a present father, missing milestones and Christmases.

Mr Pether said he has no money left to keep fighting. He urged Australians to recognise that “Australia is not a bystander in this.” “Do not let your government quietly normalise the idea that an Australian can be subjected to arbitrary detention, due-process violations, torture indicators, and hostage-taking characteristics raised by UN mechanisms — and then left to rot in procedural limbo while the family is financially and psychologically ruined.” He implored Australians to “speak up”.

He concluded with a powerful plea to write to MPs: “Make noise. Refuse to accept silence as an answer.” Meanwhile the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told the Roscommon Herald it has been working closely with the Australian Government to secure Mr Pether’s release. “We remain in close and regular contact with the Pether family on all aspects of this case and continue to offer assistance,” a spokesperson said.