By John Lee.
The Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) has reportedly been ordered to pay $13 million to Abu Dhabi-based Cardno ME (CME), relating to a dispute over the construction of its new headquarters in Baghdad.
The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)'s International Court of Arbitration is said to have made the ruling in February, but the decision has only recently been made public when CME attempted to have the award enforced in France.
Australian engineer Robert Pether and his Egyptian colleague Khalid Radwan were detained in April 2021 by authorities in Baghdad in relation to the dispute. They have been sentenced to five years in prison and jointly fined $12 million on charges of fraud. Their families claim they were tricked into traveling to Iraq to attempt to resolve the dispute.
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found that Australian engineer Robert Pether and Egyptian engineer Khalid Radwan were "arbitrarily detained on discriminatory grounds", and referred the case to the Special Rapporteur on torture.
Robert Pether's wife, Desree Pether, said the ICC decision strengthened the case for releasing the pair.
[Update: The ICC judgement can be viewed here.]
(Sources: The Guardian, Forbes)
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