Robert Pether returning to Ireland after being held in Iraq for five years 

Mr Pether had been in prison in Iraq since April 7, 2021, after being arrested on fraud charges following a contractual dispute involving his employer over the building of a new Central Bank building in Iraq.

Robert Pether, an engineer who had been held in Iraq for five years, is to return to Ireland on Monday morning. 

Mr Pether had been in prison in Iraq since April 7, 2021, after being arrested on fraud charges following a contractual dispute involving his employer over the building of a new Central Bank building in Iraq.

In a report in March 2022, the UN working group on arbitrary detention found Pether had been arbitrarily detained in breach of international law.

Mr Pether, an Australian native, had been living in Elphin, Co Roscommon, with his wife and children before his arrest.

He and an Egyptian colleague were detained after being summoned to a meeting in Baghdad to discuss the ongoing project.

In a statement on Monday morning, foreign affairs minister Helen McEntee confirmed that Mr Pether was returning on Monday morning. 

"This brings to an end an extraordinarily difficult period for Robert, his wife Desree and their children," she said in a statement. 

"I am pleased that Robert will soon be reunited with his family and that he will be able to recuperate in peace in Roscommon. I know they will be very happy to be reunited for the first time since 2021.

"I would like to thank the Australian government for all their support to Robert and in securing his release. 

"I want to acknowledge the efforts of the Iraqi prime minister al-Zaidi, Iraq’s foreign minister Hussein and the hard work and coordinated approach of the Irish Government who have been liaising on Robert’s release for some time. 

"I would also like to thank Irish diplomatic officials for their work on this case.

I know the HSE, the National Ambulance Service and Galway University Hospital are ready to give Robert the care he needs at this time and I am very grateful for this," Ms McEntee added. 

Mr Pether was released from jail last year due to his deteriorating health, but was banned from leaving the country until last week, when an Iraqi court dismissed proceedings against him and lifted the travel ban, citing a lack of evidence.

He was allowed to board a flight on Monday to Ireland, via Turkey, after painstaking negotiations involving officials in Ireland, Australia, Egypt and Iraq - and Mr Pether’s international pro bono team at Slaney Advisors, a consultancy specialising in international arbitration

The wife of Mr Pether, Desree who is on her way to Dublin Airport, said her husband is “just very emotional”. 

“He thought he was going to be all cool, calm and collected, but actually he’s a lot more emotional than he though he was going to be. So it is going to be a hard journey for him,” she told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland on Monday.

She added that it has been very hard because there had been a mix of “hope and no hope for months”. 

Mr Pether will be going straight to the hospital to get “the urgent medical care that he has needed for the last nearly 18 months,” she said.

“We’ve got to get that sorted first and hopefully there’s nothing too ominous and it’s all stuff that can be sorted.

“And then apparently he wants lasagna, so I guess I’m cooking,” she added.

-with additional reporting from The Guardian