Last month, Sydney engineer Robert Pether marked his 49th birthday in a cramped Iraq jail cell, surrounded by 30 prisoners.
No cake, no presents and little hope; just quick phone messages of love from his desperately worried wife and children, a continent away.
It's the third birthday the anguished father has spent behind bars. Sentenced to five years on a fraud conviction, he maintains his innocence.
For his wife Desree, the pain of being separated from "soulmate" Robert is almost too much to bear.
"Staying strong for our kids, who miss their dad dreadfully, is hard. I am broken," Desree tells New Idea from their home in central Ireland. "On Robert's birthday, we got to speak to him on the phone briefly, and tried our best to make him feel special."
Desree admits she and their three children, Nala, 11, Oscar, 18, and Flynn, 20, "sometimes run out of things to tell him".
この記事は New Idea の May 20, 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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この記事は New Idea の May 20, 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
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