Sally Faulkner and the four-member Australian “60 minutes” television crew were charged on April 12 with involvement in kidnapping after the two children, aged five and three, were snatched off the street.
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She had reportedly been working with a child recovery agency to bring them back, with the 60 Minutes crew due to record the operation.
Investigative Judge Rami Abdullah said the state still has to review whether to drop public charges against the suspects, but that Faulkner and the camera crew were free to leave Lebanon once they posted bail.
Lebanon, unlike Australia, is not a signatory of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, which allows for children normally resident in one location to be returned if taken by a relative.
“They were terrifyingly put on a plane by my ex-husband and I haven’t heard from them since”, Faulkner said in the petition, which attracted more than 33,000 signatures.
The reunion took place in the Beirut area, said al-Amin.
Ali al Amin said it was because he “didn’t want the kids to think I was keeping their mother in jail”.
Australian newspaper Sydney’s Daily Telegraph said “a multimillion-dollar deal was struck to drop abduction charges”.
“I love them and mummy’s sorry that it all worked out this way”.
A Lebanese father in the middle of a high-profile, global custody battle says his two children have been reunited with their Australian mother.
He said he accepted the judge’s explanation that the 60 Minutes crew were reporting on, and not involved in, the kidnapping.
“My client believed he was assisting a mother get back her children”.
Ms Brown told reporters she was glad to be home, before the group was escorted to two vans waiting outside.
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.
The 60 Minutes crew flew out of Lebanon early on Thursday (AEST) although Ms Faulkner remains in Beirut for another day to visit the courtroom to see her children, Lahela, 5, and Noah, 3, and sort out custody arrangements, Mr Moghabghab said.
The father at the centre of the 60 Minutes kidnap drama has denied receiving payment from Channel Nine as part of a deal that freed the TV crew and his estranged wife – a denial that clashes with alleged new evidence.
Adam Whittington, the dual Australian-British CEO of Child Abduction Recovery International, and his British colleague Craig Michaels remain in jail, as do two Lebanese associates.
A spokeswoman for Nine confirmed to news.com.au that some compensation was paid to Elamine to help secure their release but would not comment on how much money changed hands.
Elamine maintained his position he has not been paid in the deal, but then Carrie asked whether Channel Nine “paid anyone surrounding you or connected to you anything?”
But Mr Elamine arrived on Thursday without their two kids, and Ms Faulkner did not get to see them.
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But the crew and Nine should have never become “part of the story”, Mr Marks said in an email obtained by AAP.
