Charges Officially Filed Against Tara Brown And 60 Mins Crew

Charges have officially been filed against an Australian mother and a well-known television crew over their involvement in a botched child recovery mission in Lebanon. Their fates will be decided today at the start of the hearing in Beirut.

Australia has been waiting with baited breath as the story of the Australian mother Sally Faulkner and 60 Mins TV crew unfolded. The first full day of the hearing began with a long testimony read by the judge from the prosecutor that included the filed charges. These include hiding information, forming an association to commit a crime, kidnapping or holding a minor and physical assault.

It is understood that 9 or 10 people are facing the charges of kidnapping, harm and disrespect for the authorities. These include Sally Faulkner, the Australian mother who was attempting to recover her children from their Lebanese father, Tara Brown and her Channel 9 film crew, two or three local men, and two Britons, believed to be associated with an international child custody rescue specialist.

The Justice Process

Sometime yesterday all members of the accused were interviewed individually by the judge and their lawyers to get the full story. This will allow the judge to decide whether to uphold the charges, dismiss them, or grant bail pending more enquiry. If he decides to grant bail the group will be released, but will need to remain in Lebanon.

According to the ABC, the child abduction charges laid against Faulkner and the 60 Mins crew may be downgraded from the more serious ‘deprivation of liberty’ to just a misdemeanour. This is because it was not really a case of true kidnapping, it was a mother trying to be reunited with her children. However if the charges are not downgraded the group face hefty sentencing, with their crimes carrying jail time from 3 years to life.

What Happened

Ms Faulkner and the rest of the accused were charged in Lebanon after they attempted, and failed, to snatch her two children off the main street in Beirut as they waited for the school bus. Her children, three-and-a-half-year-old Noah and five-and-a-half-year-old Lahela were waiting for the bus with their nanny and their grandmother when they were converged upon by the child custody recovery specialists. The grandmother was pushed to the ground and injured, hitting her head during the scuffle. The entire scene was captured on both street CCTV and the Channel 9 crew.

Although the botched recovery attempt has taken much of the attention in the case, at its core it’s essentially a custody case. The issue is that while the children have been granted full custody to their mother in Australia, they have also been granted full custody to their father in Lebanon. Their father, Ali Elamine a Lebanese-Australian dual citizen, has the religious court behind him, which is a powerful force in the country. Along with this are allegations that Ms Faulkner has since begun another relationship since theirs broke down, and has also had another baby. Legal sources in Lebanon noted that Mr Elamine’s mother is Ibtissam Berri, a powerful surname in Beirut with family links to a number of local leaders.

When Mr Elamine spoke to the press outside of court yesterday, he expressed his dismay:

“It is a big mess, a really big mess, 100 per cent,” he told News Corp Australia.

“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. The manpower … it went wrong in places.

“It is a mess, all of it. She (the children’s mother Sally Faulkner) could have gone about it in a different way, not like this.

“What happened shouldn’t have happened and the kids should not have been put in a situation where someone could have been harmed; the kids should not have been dragged into this.”

What We Still Don’t Know

There remains a considerable amount of mystery and uncertainty in this case. Not the least of this is the shadowy man behind Child Abduction Recovery International (or CARI), reportedly a former Australian soldier named Adam Whittington, who claimed to be a professional, but with some of the lowest prices in the ‘industry’. Col Chapman, a rival child recovery agent working out of the Sunshine Coast labelled Whittington and his team as “cowboys”, and criticised their choice to snatch the children from a busy street in the middle of the day.

Along with that is the unknowns surrounding the possible charges or length of punishment that will be levied against those involved. There are suggestions that the Nine Network will be launching an internal investigation after reports indicated that they paid a six figure sum towards the recovery of the children. The claim that they are “co-operating fully with the Lebanese authority” and that they “respect the laws of Lebanon and its judiciary”.