The wife of a man jailed in Iraq pleaded for an emergency meeting with Taoiseach Micheal Martin amid fears her husband has cancer.
Robert Pether was locked up in April last year in Baghdad in a €20 million contract row between his Dubai-based employer and the Central Bank of Iraq.
The businessman (47) had melanoma — the most serious type of skin cancer — in 2005 and needs regular monitoring check-ups.
His wife Desree, however, said that has not happened while her husband languishes behind bars and she said that he has seen moles returning that had been previously removed.
The mother of three blamed that on “low immunity and poor nutrition” in prison and fears that his cancer is now coming back.
And last night she called for a meeting with Mr Martin “to put the full truth on the table in front of him” over Rob’s health scare.
Rob is currently held in Baghdad’s maximum security Al-Muthanna military detention centre where conditions were condemned as appalling by UN Human Rights chiefs.
Rob’s current cancer scare comes as he has suffered kidney and bladder infections, lost considerable weight and suffered blackouts while banged up.
Desree (52), from Roscommon, last night told this paper: “He had a mole removed from his ear previously and one has now grown back near the same spot.
“It has changed a lot recently and Rob is very worried about it. He has more on his back.
“He had one removed in 2005 and has had around 200 removed since he was a teenager. A lot of those were not good and had to be removed.
“He is in a high-risk category and needs regular monitoring and check-ups, but that has not happened since he was arrested 16 months ago.
“The return of moles is to do with low immunity and poor nutrition.”
She added: “It’s important I meet Taoiseach Micheal Martin to put the full truth on the table in front of him.
“I went to Iraq’s embassy in London recently and I laid it all out on the table for them. I told them that Rob’s arrest was entrapment.
“He is being used as a hostage because of a commercial dispute.”
The Taoiseach’s office yesterday said: “The Department of Foreign Affairs is aware of developments in the case of Mr Pether.
“As Mr Pether is an Australian national, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is the relevant consular authority.”
Rob, an engineer from Australia, lives at Elphin in Co Roscommon with his wife and three children — Flynn (19), Oscar (17), and Nala (9).
He worked for four years for a company called CME Consulting on the bank project in Baghdad.
Covid-19 restrictions slowed the importation of construction material and delayed that project by six months.
Police then arrested Rob and told him that he would stay behind bars until his firm completed the job.
He remains in custody as his family calls for his release.
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