Australian detained in Iraq for years on his way home

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The 51-year-old was jailed on fraud charges in 2021 alongside a colleague amid a contract dispute between the consulting firm he worked for and the Central Bank of Iraq.

The UN has said Pether's detention was illegal, and an international court has ruled his employer is not responsible for the business disagreement.

On Monday the Australian government confirmed Pether was on his way to being reunited with his family – who feared he would die in prison – at their home in Ireland.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the outcome followed "many years of persistent advocacy" by Australia and the Irish authorities.

"I spoke to Mr Pether shortly before his departure from Baghdad and am pleased he is now free to move forward with his life," she said.

Pether was conditionally released from prison in Iraq last year, but barred from leaving the country, with Canberra at the time saying he continued to face the prospect of more legal proceedings.

Pether worked in the Middle East for almost a decade before taking on a huge rebuild of the Central Bank of Iraq's Baghdad headquarters in 2015.

He was arrested alongside his CME Consulting colleague, Egyptian Khalid Radwan, after the bank accused the men of stealing money from the project.

After being held without charge for almost six months, and then subjected to a speedy trial, the two were each given a five-year jail sentence and a joint fine of $12m (A$18.4m, £8.8m).

However, a 2022 report from the UN determined that the case contravened international law, and that Pether and Khalid had been subjected to "abusive and coercive" interrogations.

Iraq's government has previously denied allegations of ill treatment.

In 2023, the International Chamber of Commerce's (ICC) Court of Arbitration ruled that Iraq's central bank was at fault in the dispute with CME, and ordered it to pay $13m to the company.