A 60 Minutes crew of four journalists appeared before a Lebanese judge after they were arrested during an attempt to snatch two children from their paternal grandmother.
The 60 Minutes Australian team Tara Brown and her crew, Benjamin Williamson, David Ballment and Stephen Rice, are all facing criminal charges of kidnapping and being members of a criminal gang.
The crimes can attract maximum sentences of up to 3 years and 20 years, respectively.
Faulkner and her estranged husband, Ali Elamine, were urged by the judge to reach an agreement over the custody of their children. The children, Noah, 4, and Lahela, 6, were returned to their father shortly after the bungled kidnapping.
The attempted grab happened in the street in the southern Beirut suburb of Hadath, while they were walking to school with their grandmother, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
US News reported that the grandmother talked about how frightening it was when the children were snatched.
"They were faster than lighting. One hit me on the head with a pistol butt, knocking me down on the road."
Faulkner orchestrated a plan with the help of Child Abduction Recovery International (CARI), taking the 60 Minutes crew along to report the sting.
Col Chapman, CEO of Child Rescue Australia, slammed the failed rescue attempt in a series of interviews with Australian media, news.com.au reported.
"Do they think they are the SAS taking Bin Laden off the street? It was bizarre."
"Doing it in a busy street, underneath CCTV cameras … I don't know if you saw the footage but that's horrific what the kids were exposed to."
"They were spear-tackled almost into the back of the car. I'm very critical of it, as you can guess. (It was) very amateurish, very dangerous."
The father of the two children, Ali Elamine, told News Corp Australia that the whole thing is a "mess."
"It is a big mess, a really big mess, 100 per cent. The children are good, they are in good health and that is all that matters not the media not what happened, but it (CCTV of the botched operation) is for everyone to view."But the children, I've calmed them down as much as I can. It was a bit rough and tough.
"She (his ex Sally Faulkner) could have gone about it in a different way, not like this."
"But the children, I've calmed them down as much as I can. It was a bit rough and tough.
"She (his ex Sally Faulkner) could have gone about it in a different way, not like this."
60 Minutes crew facing 20 years in a Lebanese jail after an alleged child-snatch operation. @hughwhitfeld updates. https://t.co/ja0LjhCwX8— 7 News Melbourne (@7NewsMelbourne) April 13, 2016
— 7 News Melbourne (@7NewsMelbourne) April 13, 2016
The case against the journalists will be considered on Monday.
Handcuffed and heads bowed, 60 Minutes reporter Tara Brown and Sally Faulkner have faced a judge in Lebanon https://t.co/MkMM9XIJtX— smh.com.au (@smh) April 13, 2016
— smh.com.au (@smh) April 13, 2016
Foreign Minister Bassil, after meeting with Australian Ambassador to Lebanon Glenn Miles, said his team is working on a joint Lebanese-Australian committee to resolve the custody case of the two children.
Bassil said he hopes that the incident "would not have an impact on Lebanese-Australian relations."
[Photo by Bilal Hussein/AP]
