Australian TV Crew to be Freed in Toddlers Kidnap Case, Mother Faces Jail Term
Australian reporter Tara Brown and her crew involved in snatching two children on a street in southern Beirut have been charged with a small misdemeanor and will be freed after paying a minimal fine, but the children’s Australian mother Sally Faulkner and the abductors face up to seven years in jail, media reports have said.
Beirut prosecuting judge Rami Abdullah laid formal charges against Faulkner, saying the mother of five-year-old Lahala and three-year-old Noah was critical to the botched kidnapping.
Faulkner, child-recovery specialist Adam Whittington and three operatives will now face kidnapping charges.
Judge Abdullah discounted suggestions that the 60 Minutes program team formed a criminal alliance with the child-abduction team — which could have resulted in jail terms of up to 20 years — saying the media crew was acting on instructions from the Nine TV bosses. “It is over for them,’’ Judge Abdullah said.
“I was fair with them, much too fair, more than fair with their job. They go to difficult places and they were asked to be part of this by their bosses,” Abdullah said.
Brown, sacked producer Stephen Rice, sound recordist David Bailment and cameraman Ben Williamson will have to pay a fine of less than $1,000. The 60 Minutes crew was charged with a misdemeanor for not reporting a crime.
The toddlers had been handed over to their father, Ali al-Amin, after they were freed by the Internal Security Forces on April 13.
The mother had said that their father took them for a holiday in Lebanon and then allegedly refused to return them to Australia.
"The woman made an agreement with the 60 Minutes program from Channel Nine to come help her recover her children from Lebanon," a security source told AFP at the time.
The source said the children had been snatched while with their grandmother and there was a plan for them to be removed from Lebanon by boat.
A grainy video of the incident released by Lebanon's al-Jadeed television showed the children walking with an older figure, reportedly their grandmother.
Several figures jump out of a nearby car and carry the children into the vehicle, which then speeds off.
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