Wife of Australian engineer arrested in Iraq begs foreign minister to help

Robert Pether's wife says he is being kept in jail as leverage in a dispute' with country's central bank

The wife of an Australian man arrested in Iraq has pleaded with the foreign minister, Marise Payne, to intervene and help her husband, who she says is being kept in jail as leverage" to help the country's central bank.

Mechanical engineer Robert Pether, 46, remains behind bars in Baghdad without the means to contact his family after being arrested without warning three weeks ago.