Iraq – Michmutters
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Australia

Australian man Robert Pether’s health deteriorating 16 months after ‘arbitrary detention’ in Iraq began

There are serious fears for the health of an Australian man languishing in an overcrowded Baghdad jail, with doctors arguing he needs urgent surgery to treat multiple suspected skin cancers.

Robert Pether, 47, has been behind bars in Iraq since April last year, found guilty of what his family and legal team described as trumped-up fraud charges.

United Nations investigators have raised concerns Pether, and his Egyptian colleague, Khalid Zaghloul, have been exposed to torture techniques while imprisoned.

Pether’s family spent nine months trying to get him access to medical experts in Iraq, after a photo of injuries on his back was sent to a doctor in Italy.

“His doctor was absolutely appalled at the state of him,” Pether’s wife Desree told the ABC.

“He’s got so many new moles on his back, he’s got a new mole on the same ear that he had a melanoma before, and it has changed significantly in the last few months.

“It’s displaying the same aggressive behavior as the melanoma that he had.”

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Australian engineer Robert Pether’s wife Desree says she fears he won’t live another six months

He now needs to have seven potential cancers cut out but there is no guarantee he can access the care he needs in Iraq.

“Our doctors stated that he looks 74, not 47, and he looks very frail, like a frail old man,” she said.

“He’s completely grey, and his skin tone is grey.

“There’s also [the risk of] post-operative infection when he’s in a 14-foot cell with 22 other men.”

A computer design of a large building next to a river at sunset
Pether’s firm was managing the construction of the Central Bank of Iraq’s $1 billion new headquarters.(Zaha Hadid Architects)

Pether’s doctor has gone so far as to write to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Ms Pether said her husband was “absolutely terrified” about the situation, and his mental health was deteriorating.

“He’s in a really dark place,” she said.

“It’s really, really hard to be in a position where you have to talk him off of a ledge quite frequently.

“And for our 19-year-old son to get off the phone and be in tears because of the way his dad’s talking, and thinking that his father’s going to do something drastic, it’s really difficult.”

Pair face further charges

Pether, an engineer, had been working on the construction of the new $1 billion Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) headquarters in Baghdad, when he was arrested alongside his colleague Zaghloul.

In August last year, an Iraqi court found the pair guilty of deception charges which carried a $16 million fine and five years in jail.

Since then, the two men have been hit with further charges as CBI has tried to enforce further ends for delays in the project.

The case has been put off until later this month.

Ms Pether had been highly critical of the Morrison government’s approach to her husband’s case, saying her family felt abandoned.

She said there had been a “marked difference” in the approach of the new government.

“It’s chalk and cheese,” Ms Pether said.

“I’m hoping that they’re able to do something a little bit more significant … in respect to trying to get him out.”

Peter Khalil and Linda Burney, who's out of focus, sit next to each other and look toward the left.
Peter Khalil is hopeful the Iraqi government might grant Robert Pether clemency due to his ill health.(ABC News: Matt Roberts)

In June, Mr Albanese spoke to his Iraqi counterpart, Mustafa Al-Kadhimi.

An official transcript of the conversation from the Iraqi government did not mention Pether’s case but sources have told the ABC the matter was raised.

The ABC has contacted Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s office for comment.

Diplomats working ‘around the clock’

Last week, Labor MP Peter Khalil took to his feet in federal parliament to raise Pether’s situation.

“The strain on Robert is terrible, but so is the pain of his family — the pain they’ve had to endure for over 16 months — his wife, Desree, and his children, Nala, Oscar and Flynn,” he told the House of Representatives.

“The Pether family have sold a property to help pay for Robert’s legal fees, and, I think, a car as well. All they want is Robert to return home safely.

“His daughter, Nala, draws pictures of what she plans to do with Dad when he gets out and is back home. Desree tells me it’s hard to keep the kids’ and Robert’s hopes up.”

Mr Khalil said diplomats were working “around the clock” on the case, and hoped the Iraqi government might grant him clemency based on his deteriorating health.

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Categories
US

Cunningham picks former fighter pilot as SC gov running mate

COLUMBIA, SC (AP) — Joe Cunningham has chosen Tally Parham Casey, a civil litigator who flew fighter jets during three combat tours over Iraq, to ​​be his running mate in his quest to become South Carolina’s first Democratic governor in 20 years.

“She’s one of the most impressive people that I’ve ever met,” said Cunningham, who previewed his lieutenant governor pick for The Associated Press ahead of a formal announcement Monday. “Ella She’s fought for our freedoms abroad, and she wants to continue fighting for those freedoms, so that’s why I put her on the ticket, and ella she’s agreed to do it.”

Cunningham, 40, planned to introduce Casey, 52, at an event in Greenville, her hometown.

“I have long admired Joe’s bipartisan approach to governing and believe he is exactly what South Carolina needs as governor,” Casey said in a statement provided by the campaign, calling her selection “an incredible honor and privilege.”

“Joe is a regular guy who has the guts to say what we’re all thinking,” she also said in the statement.

This is the second gubernatorial election cycle in which contenders for South Carolina’s top two executive offices run on the same ticket. In years past, governors and their lieutenant governors were elected separately, meaning that sometimes the politicians clashed ideologically or were from different parties.

Last week, Gov. Henry McMaster and Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, 54, became South Carolina’s first gubernatorial ticket to file for reelection, with McMaster calling the payroll company founder “fully conversant with the trials, tribulations and challenges of business.” That skillset, the governor has saidcomplements his decades in law and politics.

Since her election in 2018, Evette has spent many months traveling the state, meeting with businesses and promoting their relationships with South Carolina’s technical training schools. Both she and the governor say keeping them strong is key to the state’s manufacturing economy.

Cunningham also points to the diverse experiences of his running mate. Casey’s military service, legal savvy and the fact that she’s a woman make her the right fit for where he’d like to take the state, he said.

“Tally is the best person for the job, period,” Cunningham told AP. “And the fact that she’s a woman brings that perspective to the ticket, especially in light of everything that’s gone on with Gov. McMaster’s attack on our freedoms and his assault on women’s rights. It makes it that much more personal for Tally.”

The Republican-dominated Legislature is on track to make abortions even harder to get in South Carolina following the US Supreme Court’s decision to reverse its nearly 50-year-old Roe v. Wade ruling affirming a constitutional right to the procedure.

While abortion-rights groups challenge the state’s current law, which bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy but includes some exceptions, a special legislative committee advanced a proposal last week to ban almost all abortions, except when the mother’s life is at risk.

McMaster, who has said he would “immediately” work with those lawmakers, said last week that the six-week ban includes “good exceptions” and is “quite reasonable.”

“If there are other steps, if there are other things that they believe should be done after thorough examination, then I’d like to hear about it,” McMaster said.

Cunningham has called for legislators to hold off on debating the measure this fall until after the November election.

Casey was South Carolina’s first female fighter pilot, enlisting with the state’s Air National Guard’s 157th Fighter Squadron in 1996 and attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel. She has nearly 1,500 hours in the F-16, more than 100 of them in combat, and has received numerous service-related awards.

Casey has also been an attorney for more than two decades, most of that at Wyche PA in Columbia, where she was elected chair in 2017 and focuses on commercial litigation, products liability, insurance and aerospace law. The graduate of Princeton University and the University of Virginia School of Law she has also been a federal law clerk.

Like Cunningham, Casey is significantly younger than McMaster, who at 75 is the state’s oldest governor, and whose age the Democrat has said is too advanced to adequately represent South Carolinians.

“He’s been in politics literally longer than I’ve been alive, and you look at where that’s gotten us,” Cunningham said. “What Tally offers is much-needed change, and it’ll be a refreshing take on politics.”

Cunningham has proposed an age cap of 72 for South Carolina officeholders — a shift that would require voters to approve a constitutional change. He’s signaled openness to a similar federal age limit, which would apply to 82-year-old House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn of South Carolina and 79-year-old President Joe Biden.

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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP.

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