Court releases mother and television crew held in Lebanon kidnap case
Sally Faulkner, who was arrested in Beirut with Australian crew for allegedly kidnapping her children, is freed after a settlement is agreed
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Your support makes all the difference.An Australian mother and a television crew detained over a botched attempt to recover her children from their father in Lebanon have been released on bail.
Sally Faulkner, from Brisbane, and the four-person crew had been accused of the attempted kidnapping her two young children – a five-year-old daughter and a three-year-old son – as part of a custody dispute with their Beirut-based father, Ali al-Amin.
Mr Amin is said to have dropped all the “personal” charges against the five Australians as part of an out-of-court settlement. Mr Amin said that he had dropped the charges against his estranged wife and the TV crew
from the Channel 9 programme 60 minutes - led by prominent journalist Tara Brown - because he “didn't want the kids to think I was keeping their mother in jail.”
Ms Faulkner says that Mr Amin moved their son and daughter to Lebanon from Australia last year without her permission – a claim he denies. As part of the settlement reached on Wedsnesday, Ms Faulkner surrendered any custody claims to the two children in Lebanon. “She will accept that the children will stay with their father”, her lawyer, Ghassan Moughabhab told the Associated Press. “Taking into consideration the Lebanese law, he's in the right.”
The judge in the case, Rami Abdullah said the state still has to decide whether to drop public criminal charges against the suspects, but that Ms Faulkner and the camera crew would be free to leave Lebanon once they posted bail. The TV crew were potentially set to leave Lebanon on a flight back to Australia as early as last night.
However, Ms Faulkner and the TV crew could be compelled to return to Lebanon to face trial if the public charges were not dropped.
Four men, two British and two Lebanese, remain in custody having been implicated in the alleged attempted kidnap. The Britons are Adam Whittington and Craig Michael, both employees of the UK-based company Child Abduction Recovery International (CARI). Last week, Judge Abdullah said the nine suspects could face up to 15 years in prison if tried and convicted.
The case has gripped many in Australia in the Middle East, with the out-of-court settlement coming nearly two weeks after the five Australians were arrested over the alleged kidnapping after the two children were snatched off the street.
CCTV footage broadcast on Lebanese television appeared to show several people grabbing the children from their grandmother – who Mr Amin said suffered a head injury during the incident - and bundling them into a car, with a man seen filming the scene from the vehicle.
According to reports in Australian media, the children were promptly united with Ms Faulkner, who called Mr Amin to let him know they were safe. Ms Faulkner was later detained, with other suspects detained soon after that. The children were then returned to Mr Amin.
Speaking outside the Palace of Justice in Baabda, a suburb of Beirut, Mr Amin said that he would allow Ms Faulkner to visit the children but he would raise them in Lebanon. He added that there was a chance of him taking the children to visit their mother in Australia, but only at some point in the future.
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