Rob's first words were 'My family, I'm out'

Relief but shock as of video call after jail release: he's 'unrecognisable'

- BY SEAN MURPHY

THE Irish wife of an “innocent hostage” freed from prison in Iraq after four years has revealed his first words were “My family, I'm out.”

Robert Pether left his family home at Elphin in Roscommon in April 2021 to fly to Baghdad to sort out a €20million contract row between his Dubai-based employer and the Central Bank of Iraq.

But he was arrested and jailed on fraud charges, which he denies and which the United Nations claims are false.

After more than four years of his family campaigning in The Star for his freedom amid rapid deterioration in cancer survivor Rob's health, he is now finally out of prison.

His wife Desree revealed he is in seriously bad health but cannot return home yet because Iraq has imposed a travel ban.

She told us: “We got the news from Robert himself via video call on his solicitor’s phone. His first words were, 'There’s my family, I'm out'”

She added it is such “a huge relief” but he “is not home yet” so this is just a “step in the right direction”.

She revealed she can't go to Iraq to bring him home for urgent medical care because their “kids are too scared of me going out to get him in case I would get jailed too”.

Desree said her husband is “unrecognisable” to her, four years after she last saw him.

She hopes the move to get him home will start as soon as the Islamic holiday of Eid ends.

The religious period, which is often used by countries in the Middle East to release prisoners, started yesterday and ends on Tuesday.