Australian engineer Robert Pether has left Iraq after five years, including four in jail, following an Iraqi court's decision to dismiss proceedings against him and lift a travel ban for lack of evidence. He was arrested without charge in 2021 in Baghdad over a payment dispute involving his firm's work on a new central bank headquarters, and a 2022 UN working group found his detention arbitrary and possibly involving torture. He flew to Ireland via Turkey, where his family lives, though his advisers criticised Foreign Minister Penny Wong for announcing his departure while he was still in transit.