Draft:Robert Pether

Robert Pether is an Engineer from Sydney, Australia who was working for a Dubai based company overseeing the construction of the Zaha Hadid designed Central Bank of Iraq HQ project in Baghdad, Iraq. A dispute between Robert's employer CME Consulting and the Central Bank of Iraq arose and Robert and his Egyptian colleague were formally invited to Iraq to attend a meeting with the Governor of the Central Bank of Iraq on the 7th April 2021. Robert and his colleage were arrested by Presidential security forces at the appointed time of the meeting and imprisoned. Eventually after five and a half months with no charges they were convicted in a criminal court in Iraq and sentenced to five years 'hard imprisonment' and a financial penalty of $12.2 MILLION USD against Robert and his colleague personally. In March 2022 the UN Arbitrary Detention Working Group published a report calling for the immediate unconditional release of Robert and his colleague and finding them to be in arbitrary detention and highlighted 30 violations of human rights and international law. Also calling for the appointment of two special rapporteurs. In February 2023 the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) ruled completely in favour of Robert's employer CME Consulting and found Central Bank of Iraq to be in breach of it's contract with CME and awarded CME Consulting almost $12m in compensation and outstanding invoices.