The wife of a Dubai resident detained in Baghdad without charge for 85 days said she is worried her husband is giving up hope.
Robert Pether, 46, has been held in custody for 85 days and his wife, Desree Pether, said she and their three children were going out of their minds with worry.
Mr Pether, an Australian engineer living in Dubai, was arrested along with a colleague during what he presumed to be a routine business meeting with his employer’s client, the Central Bank of Iraq.
The kids and I are devastated and we feel abandoned by everyone
Desree Pether
Both Mr Pether and his Egyptian colleague, Khalid Zaghlol, have remained in custody since then with several bail applications rejected despite neither man being charged with any offence.
“I am worried he has completely given up hope. I had a three minute phone call with him this morning and he feels betrayed by everyone from the Australian and Iraqi government to his employer for not helping him,” said Ms Pether.
“I have filed a submission to the United Nations about his detention but it seems it doesn’t matter what we do. It just gets ignored.”
Mr Pether works in Dubai as an engineer for CME Consulting who are supplying him with a lawyer during his detention in Baghdad.
However, Ms Pether said her husband has had limited interaction with his legal representatives and three bail applications have been denied by the authorities in Iraq.
“He has had a total of two hours with his lawyers despite being locked up for 85 days now,” she said.
“We are worried about his physical and mental health.
“The kids and I are devastated and we feel abandoned by everyone.”
Mr Pether was due to appear in court this week, according to Ms Pether, but she said his case was adjourned due to public holidays, adding to the family’s growing frustration.
She has also asked the Irish government for help as she is an Irish citizen. However, a spokesperson for the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs said their Australian counterparts were the relevant consular authority as Mr Pether was an Australian citizen.
"It would not be appropriate to comment on an ongoing consular case of an international partner," said a representative of the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs.
"Our embassies and consulates cannot directly intervene in the internal affairs or processes of another jurisdiction, including the provision of consular assistance to citizens of that jurisdiction."
The National has contacted the Australian government for comment.
His employer CME Consulting has not responded to numerous emails and phone calls.
Dispute over contract
The dispute involves a $33 million contract awarded to CME Consulting in 2015.
Work was suspended a year later owing to a lack of funds caused by plummeting oil prices in the international market and Iraq’s war with ISIS.
Iraq resumed work on the project in 2018, by which stage the partner withdrew from the contract but CME Consulting continued the work without notifying the central bank.
The company worked for 39 of the 48 months stipulated in its contract. It was paid for 32 months, before payment was withheld in September.
The dispute started this year when the bank asked CME to extend the contract for three months to make up for work suspended during the coronavirus lockdown last year.
The bank said it would not pay for the extension. CME refused, saying the suspension was not its decision and that its employees were in Baghdad.
The bank is also asking for $12 million, described as "extra payments" to be returned.
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Defence - RB: Dani Alves (free transfer); CB: Marquinhos (€31.4 million); CB: Thiago Silva (€42m); LB: Layvin Kurzawa (€23m)
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Ruwais timeline
1971 Abu Dhabi National Oil Company established
1980 Ruwais Housing Complex built, located 10 kilometres away from industrial plants
1982 120,000 bpd capacity Ruwais refinery complex officially inaugurated by the founder of the UAE Sheikh Zayed
1984 Second phase of Ruwais Housing Complex built. Today the 7,000-unit complex houses some 24,000 people.
1985 The refinery is expanded with the commissioning of a 27,000 b/d hydro cracker complex
2009 Plans announced to build $1.2 billion fertilizer plant in Ruwais, producing urea
2010 Adnoc awards $10bn contracts for expansion of Ruwais refinery, to double capacity from 415,000 bpd
2014 Ruwais 261-outlet shopping mall opens
2014 Production starts at newly expanded Ruwais refinery, providing jet fuel and diesel and allowing the UAE to be self-sufficient for petrol supplies
2014 Etihad Rail begins transportation of sulphur from Shah and Habshan to Ruwais for export
2017 Aldar Academies to operate Adnoc’s schools including in Ruwais from September. Eight schools operate in total within the housing complex.
2018 Adnoc announces plans to invest $3.1 billion on upgrading its Ruwais refinery
2018 NMC Healthcare selected to manage operations of Ruwais Hospital
2018 Adnoc announces new downstream strategy at event in Abu Dhabi on May 13
Source: The National
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Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
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Iraq negotiating over Iran sanctions impact
- US sanctions on Iran’s energy industry and exports took effect on Monday, November 5.
- Washington issued formal waivers to eight buyers of Iranian oil, allowing them to continue limited imports. Iraq did not receive a waiver.
- Iraq’s government is cooperating with the US to contain Iranian influence in the country, and increased Iraqi oil production is helping to make up for Iranian crude that sanctions are blocking from markets, US officials say.
- Iraq, the second-biggest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, pumped last month at a record 4.78 million barrels a day, former Oil Minister Jabbar Al-Luaibi said on Oct. 20. Iraq exported 3.83 million barrels a day last month, according to tanker tracking and data from port agents.
- Iraq has been working to restore production at its northern Kirkuk oil field. Kirkuk could add 200,000 barrels a day of oil to Iraq’s total output, Hook said.
- The country stopped trucking Kirkuk oil to Iran about three weeks ago, in line with U.S. sanctions, according to four people with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be identified because they aren’t allowed to speak to media.
- Oil exports from Iran, OPEC’s third-largest supplier, have slumped since President Donald Trump announced in May that he’d reimpose sanctions. Iran shipped about 1.76 million barrels a day in October out of 3.42 million in total production, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
- Benchmark Brent crude fell 47 cents to $72.70 a barrel in London trading at 7:26 a.m. local time. U.S. West Texas Intermediate was 25 cents lower at $62.85 a barrel in New York. WTI held near the lowest level in seven months as concerns of a tightening market eased after the U.S. granted its waivers to buyers of Iranian crude.
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Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
