The fate of an Australian mother and TV crew is expected to be revealed Wednesday amid attempts to convince the father to drop the lawsuit over the abduction of his two children, a judicial source told The Daily Star. Mount Lebanon Investigative Judge Rami Abdullah will work on finding common ground between the mother, Sally Faulkner from Brisbane, and her Lebanese ex-husband, Ali al-Amin, currently entrenched in a child-custody battle over their children Noah, 4, and Lahela, 6.
Five Australians – including the children’s mother and four staffers of the Australian TV show 60 Minutes – two Britons and two Lebanese were detained over the abduction. The Australians were identified as Faulkner, Benjamin Willson, Tara Brown, David Belmont and Steven Rebs; Britons Creg Micheal and Adam Whittington and Lebanese Mohammad Hamza and Khaled Barbour. A 10th Romanian suspect was also arrested.
There are attempts to pressure Amin to drop charges against Faulkner and the Australian TV crew involved in the case, the source claimed. “If they reach an agreement and reconcile [their differences], she and the team may be released on bail,” the source added. “But if Amin doesn’t back down from the lawsuit, they will remain arrested.”
Nevertheless, remarks made by Amin Monday indicated his insistence on maintaining the criminal charges against Faulkner and the TV crew. He spoke outside the Justice Palace in Baabda where the Australians were questioned. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Amin claimed that dropping the charges against Faulkner meant that charges against the Nine Network’s 60 Minutes crew would be dropped as well – something he did not want. “The way they are trying to push for this is that if Sally goes out on bail, they all get out,” Amin told the newspaper. The Australian daily said Amin did, however, admit that his children missed their mother.
The suspects were allegedly involved in the kidnapping of the children in the southern Beirut suburb of Hadath. Three men in a silver Hyundai allegedly abducted the two children as they were waiting for a school bus with their grandmother and the housekeeper. They were freed by police the next day.
Whittington, a former British police officer, has been said to lead Child Abduction Recovery International – a child recovery agency which was allegedly paid to bring the children back to their mother. The judicial source explained that Whittington’s case was more complicated. The source also added that there had been public outcry in Australia over the incident where legal and security delegations have been heading to Lebanon in attempts to resolve the dispute.
Television footage showed Australian and international reporters camped outside the Justice Palace.
Last week, Abdullah charged the suspects with kidnapping at gunpoint, threatening the lives of children, and inflicting harm on them.
If convicted, the defendants could be sentenced to seven to 20 years with hard labor.
