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Australian mother and TV crew set for release in Lebanon kidnapping case Australian mother and TV crew to be released in Lebanon kidnapping case
(about 1 hour later)
Australian mother Sally Faulkner, journalist Tara Brown and three television crew members are set for release from a Beirut jail after a deal was struck to dismiss kidnapping charges against them in exchange for compensation. The Australian mother Sally Faulkner, journalist Tara Brown and three television crew members will be released from a Beirut jail on Wednesday after a deal was struck to dismiss kidnapping charges against them in exchange for compensation.
But a British “child recovery agent” and two others implicated in the alleged attempt to kidnap Faulkner’s two children from her estranged Lebanese husband will remain in the country to face the charges, which carry a maximum 20-year sentence. But the British “child recovery agent” Adam Whittington and two others implicated in the alleged attempt to kidnap Faulkner’s two children from her estranged Lebanese husband will remain in custody.
Related: How did it come to this? Inside the doomed bid to snatch Sally Faulkner's childrenRelated: How did it come to this? Inside the doomed bid to snatch Sally Faulkner's children
Brown and the crew, from the Nine Network’s 60 Minutes program, had to pay compensation in order to secure their release. Nine said its staff could be on a flight back to Australia as early as Wednesday night. Brown and the crew, from the Nine Network’s 60 Minutes programme, had been ordered by a judge to post bail by 2pm Beirut time, in order to be freed. Nine was preparing to fly its crew and Faulkner back to Sydney as early as Wednesday night, after judge Rami Abdullah accepted that Faulkner’s ex-husband, Ali al-Amin, would drop personal charges against the group.
Lawyers for Faulkner and her former partner, Ali al-Amin, confirmed a deal had been struck earlier on Wednesday before it was presented at about 11am to judge Rami Abdullah. However, after a hearing with the five Australians in the presence of their lawyers, the judge said he was yet to decide whether he would refer separate criminal charges to another court, a move that would require the group to return to Lebanon for a later hearing.
The precise details, including the amount paid in compensation over the botched alleged child-snatching, remain unclear. Lawyers involved in the case said Amin, who brought the couple’s two young children to Lebanon last May, and refused to return them to their mother in Brisbane, received “substantial” compensation from Nine, in return for dropping the case. Outside the court, Amin denied he had been paid anything. Faulkner is understood to have agreed not to pursue a custody claim .
A defiant Ali al-Amin had said on Monday he was reluctant to drop charges against his former partner if it made it more likely that the 60 Minutes crew, and others involved in the operation, would be freed too. “The figure was much, much higher than a normal amount for custody cases in Lebanon, which is around $40,000-$50,000,” one of the lawyers said.
“They are trying to push for that if Sally gets bail, they all get bail,” he said. “I said then I will charge everyone involved and I say it today. It will take some time. I am in no hurry.” The deal came nearly two weeks after the Australians and two British nationals who helped organise the botched recovery operation were arrested on 7 April, hours after the children had been snatched from their grandmother and nanny as they walked them to school.
Faulkner, Brown and seven others were charged last week with armed abduction, purveying threats, and physical harm after an attempt to allegedly snatch five-year-old Lahela and Noah, three, while they were out walking on a south Beirut street. As the group prepared to leave Lebanon, senior Lebanese officials gave new details about a plan that was foiled two days before it was executed.
The children had been taken to Beirut under the guise of a three-week holiday by their father in May and not returned. Not only did Amin know of Faulkner’s movements, through access to her emails and social media accounts, but intelligence officers were also on to her.
A senior Lebanese official told the Guardian that the Australians, as well as Whittington, another British national, Craig Robert Michael, and a mystery Romanian who is still at large, were under close surveillance within hours of Whittington and his two accomplices arriving on a boat they had rented in Cyprus.
“They had said they were lost, and that the boat had broken, and they wanted to dock in port,” the officer said. “They were staying in the Movenpick and we checked the passport scans they had given at check-in. It didn’t seem right, and then one of my officers asked Whittington for his [physical] passport. He said no, and then we got more suspicious.
“Then they said four Australians would be leaving by sea with them the next day. We thought: ‘What’s this? They arrive from the airport, then they want to take a boat to Cyprus?’ Something was clearly strange. So we got the Australian passport scans and checked them out and we worked out that they were from a famous television show.
“We set up in the Movenpick and watched their every move. On the day of the kidnapping, we saw one of them leave the hotel in a grey Hyundai Kia at 5.30am. Later that day we learned that the same car had been used in the abduction. Then we knew we had them.
“Then we went to the Australian embassy, they were alarmed by it all. They didn’t know anything at that point. The mother was in a house, but she was easy to find. They were very careless with their communications, but even more careless with their planning.”
The official said the focus of the case was always going to be Whittington, who in the mind of Lebanese police and prosecutors, had the strongest case to answer: “This was his plan. He organised a kidnapping on foreign soil. If you are going to do that, don’t get caught.
“The mother was being a mother. The journalists were involved in a way that they shouldn’t have been, but they were doing their job.”
Faulkner, Brown and seven others were charged last week with armed abduction, purveying threats, and physical harm after snatching five-year-old Lahela and Noah, three, from a south Beirut street. The abduction was captured on CCTV and played a central role in charges being laid.
Two Lebanese men, Mohammed Hamza and Khaled Barbour, who were the alleged drivers of the getaway vehicle, remain in custody. A lawyer connected to the case said one of the men was related to a third man, named Ahmed, whom Whittington had worked with in Europe.
Speaking on the steps of the Palace of Justice in Baabda in the foothills above Beirut, Amin said he would consider allowing the children to see their mother. “But not in the short term. Or maybe the medium term. I did not want them thinking later on that I had kept their mother in jail.”
Faulkner gave birth to a child with a new partner three months ago. Her lawyer, Ghassan Moghabghab, said: “Everyone is relieved that this is all over. There will be some sort of arrangement on custody later on. For now, Sally is free to return to Australia.”