Top lawyer is linked to infamous Lebanese child-snatching case

As a divorce lawyer, he knows well the workings of the court system. But it was his appearance as a witness in the NSW Supreme Court that’s his most famous.

EXCLUSIVE

As a divorce lawyer Pierre Hawach, estranged husband of Sally Singleton-Hawach, knows well the workings of the court system.

It was his appearance as a witness in the NSW Supreme Court in 2006 however that stands today as perhaps his most famous court appearance.

Hawach is the brother of Joseph Hawach who, in July 2006, during a custody visit with his two young children, fled to Lebanon taking the children without their mother Melissa’s permission.

The story of Canadian-born mother Melissa Hawach’s battle to recover her two daughters made headlines around the world inspiring first a website, helpbringhannahandcecarhome.com, and later a book, Flight of the Dragonfly, after the courageous mother executed a daring operation to recover her daughters from Lebanon.

Sally Singleton-Hawach to her wedding to Pierre Hawach in Rome. Instagram.

Melissa Hawach outside Supreme Court in Sydney with parents Jim and Judy Engdahl 30 Nov 2006.

The girls, Hannah and Cedar, who have dual Canadian-Australian citizenship, lived in Calgary, Canada, with their parents from 2003.

When Joseph and Melissa’s six-year marriage failed in 2005, Joseph moved home to Australia but Melissa remained in Canada with her daughters, of whom she retained sole custody.

The girls were aged just five and three when their mother agreed they could spend three weeks in Australia with their father in July 2006 on a custody visit. The Hawach family is a Lebanese-Australian family from Sydney’s Rose Hill.

It was then that father Joseph disappeared with the girls and cut off communication with his ex-wife.

Joseph Hawach, Lebanese-Australian who abducted his two daughters Hannah and Cedar from estranged Canadian wife Melissa.

Melissa Hawach leaves the NSW Supreme Court in Sydney.

It would take the determined mother seven months to recover her children in an operation involving four former members of elite Australian and New Zealand special forces who ran an undercover surveillance exercise established outside Beirut where the girls’ father had them secreted at a resort.

Two of the operatives would be jailed for obstructing justice for their part in the operation while another two ex-soldiers would escape.

They were released from jail in 2007.

Melissa Hawach’s story, and the terrifying seven-week recovery mission, took mother and daughters through a series of safe houses in Lebanon before the trio fled home to Canada via Syria and Jordan.

Once home, they went into hiding.

Prior to the successful retrieval operation, Melissa Hawach launched legal action in the NSW Supreme Court seeking information from her ex-husband’s family about her daughter’s whereabouts.

In December 2006, Pierre Hawach told the Supreme Court he did not know where his brother and the children were located in Lebanon.

He revealed he had spoken to Joseph on the phone and his brother had told him he was not planning to return from Lebanon.

Mr Hawach’s father Elias Hawach, speaking through an Arabic interpreter, informed the court his wife Gladys had been visiting family in the Lebanese village Harf-Miziara for a three-month period.

Sally Singleton-Hawach pictured right with father John Singleton

Pierre Hawach and Sally Singleton at the Magic Millions

Joseph Hawach was later charged with two counts of child abduction by the Lebanese court and international warrants issued for his arrest. No adverse findings were made by the Supreme Court against Pierre and Elias Hawach.

Joseph Hawach’s relatives got on with their lives. His brother, Pierre, married singer Sally Singleton-Hawach in a lavish ceremony in Rome in 2015.

Among wedding guests were her high profile parents, multi-millionaire retired ad boss John Singleton and his ex wife, 1972 Miss World Belinda Green.

The couple are parents to three young children - Lewis, seven, Mirabel, six and four-year-old Johnny, named after his grandfather.

On March 25 Parramatta court issued an interim domestic apprehended violence order preventing Pierre Hawach from approaching Sally.

The DVO matter returns to court on Tuesday. No charges have been laid. Mr Hawach is not accused of any wrongdoing.

He has been approached for comment.

Originally published as Top lawyer is linked to infamous Lebanese child-snatching case