60 Minutes case in Lebanon: Court mentions Kirsty Thomson as having responsibiilty for kidnap saga
A LEBANESE court has directly pointed the finger at 60 Mins’ executive producer Kirsty Thomson as having primary responsibility for the kidnap fiasco.
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A LEBANESE court has directly pointed the finger at 60 Minutes executive producer Kirsty Thomson as having primary responsibility for the Beirut child snatching fiasco, which landed four of the program’s senior staff in jail.
Documents from the case in Beirut state that Channel 9 had paid for the operation by Adam Whittington’s Child Abduction Recovery International (CARI) at Thomson’s request. “The Australian television was the one that funded the operation, through the sole call of Kirsty Thompson,’’ a translated excerpt from one document states.
A spokeswoman from Nine had no comment yesterday on the claims in the court indictment, other than to say: “There will still be a trial on a date to be determined and out of respect for the Lebanese legal process we will not be making any further comment while the matter is still before the court.”
But internal emails exclusively revealed by News Corp Australia last month show that in January this year, Thomson — at that point still 60 Minutes’ chief of staff — outlined a plan to senior 60 Minutes staff “to pay $115K ($69 upfront) for CARI to snatch the kids, escape by water (jetskis) to a boat and then on to Cyprus”.
MORE: Sacked producer hires top lawyer to take on 60 Mins
Thomson, senior reporter Tara Brown, sound man David “Tangles” Ballment and cameraman Ben Williamson remain with 60 Minutes, but 60 Minutes producer Stephen Rice was sacked by the network as bearing primary responsibility for the operation going wrong in Beirut. However, he has hired lawyers to challenge his dismissal.
It is understood Rice told the judge in the Beirut case that Thomson had signed off on the Beirut operation.
Meanwhile, the Brisbane mother at the centre of the case, Sally Faulkner, was charged with kidnapping her two children because her estranged husband Ali Elamine had — unbeknownst to her — obtained a religious order giving him full and sole custody of her children.
Prosecuting judge Rami Abdullah also found that she had called Elamine on April 6 in the hours after the kidnapping and informed him the children Lahela, 5, and Noah, 3, were with her and in good health. She asked him to meet her at the Australian embassy on Monday April 11, although the judge said the plan was she was leave Lebanon by sea in the boat with CARI’s Whittington the next day.
The judge believed she was critical to the entire operation and that she collaborated with Channel Nine and Whittington. Judge Abdullah told News Corp Australia that charging Ms Faulkner was central to the entire kidnapping plot.
“She was the one who asked for the kidnap under the title of getting her children, that was the goal,’’ he said.
In the indictment he said Faulkner had full custody awarded by the Australian court but this did not allow her to get help from others, who used force, to escape sanction especially when there were legal ways to execute foreign legal decisions through the Lebanese legal system.
Ms Faulkner’s Lebanese lawyer Ghassan Moghaghab said Faulkner was unaware Elamine had obtained the religious order — awarded in August 2015 — and he pondered how the judge reached such a decision. Judge Abdullah has found in contravention of several legal precedents that exclude a parent from being charged with kidnapping.
“But he believes the father is totally responsible for the children,’’ Mr Moghaghab said.
“Ali Elamine had the religious order but he didn’t tell her or communicate this decision to her.’’
A veiled Faulkner was in the kidnap car sitting in the middle of the back seat to immediately reassure the children while the at-large Romanian Ianut Scurtu Bogdan and Cypriot tattoo artist Craig Michael carried out the snatch. 60 Minutes cameraman Ben Williamson was in the front filming.
The fixer Mohammed Hamza had driven the car, but during the operation in order to provide further muscle, his place was taken by taxi driver Khaled Barbour. Whittington was back at the marina preparing the escape boat.
Said the judge about Whittington: “He assigned Sally Faulkner, Mohammed Hamza, Khaled Barbour, Craig Michael, Scurtu Bogdan to kidnap the children and to hand them to him, preparing to get them out of the country by sea to Cyprus, then to Greece so later on they can fly back to Australia.’’ The kidnap was to take place a day earlier but it was foiled when Elamine was walking the children to school rather than grandmother Ibtissm Berri and her maid.
Prosecuting judge Rami Abdullah also found that she had called Elamine on April 6 in the hours after the kidnapping and informed him the children Lahela, five, and Noah, three, were with her and in good health. She asked him to meet her at the Australian embassy on Monday 11th April although the judge said the plan was she was leave Lebanon by sea in the boat with the chief planner Adam Whittington the next day.
The judge believed she was critical to the entire operation and that she collaborated with Channel Nine and Whittington. Judge Abdullah told News Corp Australia that charging Ms Faulkner was central to the entire kidnapping plot.
“She was the one who asked for the kidnap under the title of getting her children, that was the goal,’’ he said.
In the indictment he said Faulkner had full custody awarded by the Australian court but this did not allow her to get help from others, who used force, to escape sanction especially when there were legal ways to execute foreign legal decisions through the Lebanese legal system.
Ms Faulkner’s Lebanese lawyer Ghassan Moghaghab said Faulkner was unaware Elamine had obtained the religious order — awarded in August 2015 — and he pondered how the judge reached such a decision. Judge Abdullah has found in contravention of several legal precedents that exclude a parent from being charged with kidnapping.
“But he believes the father is totally responsible for the children,’’ Mr Moghaghab said.
“Ali Elamine had the religious order but he didn’t tell her or communicate this decision to her.’’
A veiled Faulkner was in the kidnap car sitting in the middle of the back seat to immediately reassure the children while the at-large Romanian Ianut Scurtu Bogdan and Cypriot tattoo artist Craig Michael carried out the snatch. 60 Minutes cameraman Ben Williamson was in the front filming.
The fixer Mohammed Hamza had driven the car, but during the operation in order to provide further muscle, his place was taken by taxi driver Khaled Barbour. Whittington was back at the marina preparing the escape boat.
Said the judge about Whittington: “He assigned Sally Faulkner, Mohammed Hamza, Khaled Barbour, Craig Michael, Scurtu Bogdan to kidnap the children and to hand them to him, preparing to get them out of the country by sea to Cyprus, then to Greece so later on they can fly back to Australia.’’ The kidnap was to take place a day earlier but it was foiled when Elamine was walking the children to school rather than grandmother Ibtissm Berri and her maid.
Whittington held a meeting with the kidnap crew and Faulkner at Starbucks near the marina on the night of April 3 and then held a separate meeting with the 60 Minutes crew, and Faulkner on April 4 to run through how the operation will take place.
Despite escaping a serious charge, 60 Minutes crew may still find themselves before Lebanon’s criminal justice system after a last-minute addition to the indictment by the Mount Lebanon chief prosecutor Claude Karam.
Judge Abdullah ruled that the television crew was only to be charged with a misdemeanour of knowing, but not reporting a crime, and to be trialled before a single judge, and which carries a small fine. But Mr Karam added, in handwriting to the official indictment, that the charges against the 60 Minutes crew could also be heard before the criminal court.
Judge Abdullah told News Corp there could be no appeal to the 60 Minutes’ charges, but other Lebanese lawyers say technically if the television crew case is brought before the criminal court, in combination with the kidnapping charges faced by Faulkner, Whittington, Michael and Hamza there was a very unlikely risk their role could be reviewed. Tara Brown, Williamson, then producer Stephen Rice and sound recordist David Ballment all denied the accusation of kidnapping, claimed ignorance of Lebanese law and insisted they were carrying out their jobs under the direction of Channel Nine.
Rice said that 60 Minutes executive producer Kirsty Thomson had signed off on the operation.
The indictment showed that Whittington asked 35 initial questions about the children and demanded the Australian court custody decision before carrying out the operation and assigning Hamza to collect information within Lebanon.
The judge said in the indictment that act doesn’t justify the means and that Faulkner and the TV crew were “slashing to the wall’’. He found Whittington planned the operation and the others executed it with the facilitation of Channel Nine. He said the TV crew knew of the kidnap operation and that Williamson had documented the operation, but he reduced their charges to a misdemeanour because they were acting under instruction from their bosses.
The case now moves to the indictment chamber, which is an appellant court before heading to the criminal court.
Originally published as 60 Minutes case in Lebanon: Court mentions Kirsty Thomson as having responsibiilty for kidnap saga
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