A Nine Network spokeswoman declined to comment on Australian media reports that the broadcaster had been involved in setting up payments to a child recovery service involved in the alleged kidnapping.
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Australia’s ambassador to Lebanon, Glenn Miles, met Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil yesterday to discuss the case, which is causing significant concern in both countries.
Australian officials said Lebanese authorities have not yet formally charged Ms Faulkner or the television crew – which includes high-profile reporter Tara Brown – but prosecutors have recommended charges.
Faulkner, 29, who has another young child in Australia, had claimed that her former husband Ali el-Amien moved their son Noah, four, and daughter Lahela, five to the Middle East without her permission in May a year ago – a claim he disputes.
The Brisbane mother, who left an infant child behind in Australia, said 60 Minutes would pay for the agency to organise another extraction via boat, but Mr Chapman said he would need “some sort of deposit or guarantee” that the 75,000 euros would be paid.
The seven defendants had been referred by Judge Claude Karam to Mount Lebanon’s Investigative Judge Rami Abdallah for further questioning with their lawyers and translators, the newspaper said, quoting a judicial source.
The Australians are being held at the Baabda Detention Centre in Beirut awaiting direction from Judge Abdullah. Brown was also questioned.
“They’re receiving all the full consular support from our diplomats and consular officials in Beirut”, Turnbull told reporters in Perth.
Media crews outside the courthouse were able to see some of the suspects as they were taken for questioning Wednesday. Another man, Greg Michael of Britain, was shaking as he was walked in long shorts and a T-shirt.
They are facing charges of hiding information, forming an association of two or more people to commit crime against a person, kidnapping or holding a minor and physical assault.
Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop said on Saturday she could not “understate the seriousness with which the Lebanese authorities are viewing the case” and added that Canberra was handling it “very carefully”. Although Ms Faulkner apparently initiated the separation with her Lebanese husband, she seems not to have sought to formalise care and custody arrangements.
Should the 60 mins team have become involved in the Lebanon child rescue?
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The network has said that its crew was in Beirut to film and interview the mother after she was reunited with her children. “Absurdly, the government say “parental child abduction” isn’t technically criminalised in Australia so aren’t bothering to help me find them”. Ali al-Amin was reportedly also in court as the judge ordered the pair to reach an agreement that could lead to Faulkner’s release, according to the ABC.
