60 Minutes reporter Tara Brown is eager to get home as she and the rest of her crew left Lebanon after being released on bail from a Beirut prison, where they had been held for two weeks after being accused of child kidnapping.
“I had the chance to say `hi’ to John,” she said of her husband in an interview with the Nine Network.
“I was ordered to call home straight away. Not the kids yet and I can’t wait to speak to them. It’s great to talk to home, it’s great to be going home.”
Image | @tomsteinfort
Sources said a substantial amount of compensation was paid to Elamine but neither side of the legal dispute has confirmed this.
Asked whether Nine had paid any compensation to the children’s father, Judge Abdullah laughed and replied: “No comment”.
Speaking outside the court, Elamine played down the compensation reports.
“I didn’t get paid anything, I didn’t sign anything, the whole procedure isn’t over, the case is still ongoing. We’ll find out,” he said.
Faulkner says Elamine took the children to Lebanon for a three-week holiday and did not return them despite her having an Australian custody order.
“I am glad it’s over,” Elamine said outside the court in Beirut.
“She is their mother and I don’t want them growing up and thinking ‘Daddy had the option of letting mummy off easily and he didn’t,” he said.
“It sucks, the whole thing sucks. No one wins here.”
Image | @9NewsAUS
Elamine also expressed sympathy for the Nine crew.
“The judge was saying the crew weren’t part of the kidnapping on the ground, it still isn’t confirmed that they funded it … And they have families too, they have children,” he said.
“Being a parent away from your children sucks, and that is another reason I want Sally to be out (of jail) because she has a three-month-old baby in Australia she needs to care for … I don’t want to come between them.”
The judge warned the public prosecutor’s case against the crew and Faulker would continue to be investigated and if charges were laid, they would be expected to return to Lebanon to face the court.
Faulkner has spent nine months trying to regain custody of her children.
Earlier this month, a child recovery team led by two men seized the children from a Beirut street as they were walking with their Lebanese grandmother.
They were taken to a safe house south of Beirut but Faulkner and the recovery team were soon arrested along with the 60 Minutes crew who were filming the operation.
Adam Whittington, the dual Australian-British man alleged to have headed up the child recovery operation, and his British colleague Craig Michael are still fighting for their release from jail.
His lawyer Joe Karam said he would soon release a document showing Nine paid Whittington’s organisation a first instalment of $A69,000 as part of the operation.
Asked if any Elamine had received any compensation from Nine, Karam, who was involved in negotiations, replied: “I do not know but most probably there was something.”
The fate of two Lebanese also charged over the operation remains unclear.
-AAP
