60 Minutes case in Lebanon: Sally Faulkner, abductors faces jail time as Nine crew get a token fine

SALLY Faulkner has hit out at her ex husband after learning she faces up to seven years behind bars while Tara Brown and the 60 Mins crew will escape jail.

• How the 60 Mins kidnap scandal left Nine exposed
• The proof that Nine paid for the child abduction
• A luxurious flight home for the 60 Mins crew
• 60 Mins crew member Stephen Rice sacked

SIXTY minutes reporter Tara Brown and the Nine crew have been charged with a small misdemeanour and will escape with a token fine, but Brisbane mother Sally Faulkner and the child abductors involved in the extraordinary snatch of two young children from a Beirut street face up to seven years in jail.

Faulkner took to Instagram to hit out at her ex husband, Ali Elamine, after learning of the charges saying he spread lies about her.

Beirut prosecuting judge Rami Abdullah laid serious formal state charges against Faulkner, saying the mother of five-year-old Lahela and three-year-old Noah, was critical to the botched kidnapping. Faulkner, along with the child recovery specialist Adam Whittington and three operatives, will now face kidnapping charges.

Judge Abdullah discounted suggestions that the 60 Minutes team formed a criminal alliance with the child abduction team — which could have resulted in potential jail terms of up to 20 years — saying the media crew was acting on instructions from the Channel Nine bosses.

“It is over for them,’’Judge Abdullah said.

“I was fair with them, much too fair, more than fair with their job they go to difficult places and they were asked to be part of this by their bosses.’’

60 minutes crew together again after their release: Tara Brown, Stephen Rice, Ben Williamson, Channel 9 Network Director of News and Current Affairs Darren Wick and David Ballment. Picture: Channel 9/Instagram

Brown, the sacked producer Stephen Rice, sound recordist David Bailment and cameraman Ben Williamson, will have to pay a fine of between $US200 to $US500.

The 60 Minutes crew was charged with a misdemeanour for not reporting a crime.

News Corp Australia has documented how the Nine Network paid $2 million in a series of payments, including to Ms Faulkners ex husband Ali Elamine and $500,000 in the latest outlay which went to the station’s Lebanese legal team last week.

But while the news is good for the Nine Network, the ordeal is far from over for Whittington, an Australian former soldier who has specialised in recovering children for separated parents.

Whittington and one of his crew, Ianut Bodgan Scurtu, who is at large, have been charged with assault as well as kidnapping.

The indictment paper filed at the court, which mentions the 60 Minutes crew, Sally Faulkner and hired abductors in Arabic. Picture: Supplied

Kidnapping charges have also been filed against the Lebanese fixer Mohammed Hamza and Craig Michael, a British Cypriot tattoo artist.

However the charges against the taxi driver Khaled Barbour faces lesser charges as an accomplice to the crime.

The judge has also asked for charges to be laid against the brother of Mohammed Hamza, Ahmed Hamza who is accused of assisting in the crime.

Adam Whittington and Craig Michael are still behind bars in Lebanon. Picture: ITV

The state charges, which have come about after 84 days of investigation by judge Abdullah — and signed off by the chief prosecutor Claude Karam — means Brown and her network team can now travel the world without any restriction. Channel Nine paid US$500,000 for the father of the two children, Ali Elamine, to drop his personal charges and allow the crew to get on the first flight out of the country to Australia.

Central to the charges against Whittington and Faulkner were a series of emails and phone conversations, downloaded from the phones which show Channel Nine paid Whittington two payments, the first for $69,000 and the second for $46,000 and where Channel Nine insisted reporter Brown be involved at critical moments. The evidence also shows attempts to try and cover up the link between Channel Nine and Whittington, but the judge says the evidence shows “the bosses directed them’’.

During the kidnap Channel Nine cameraman Ben Williamson was in the front of the vehicle filming the snatch. Barbour took them to Hamza’s mothers place in the poorest part of Beirut, abandoning plans to drive to the escape boat at the Beirut marina and the rest of the 60 Minutes crew followed in another vehicle.

Sally Faulkner returns home to her baby in Brisbane. Picture: Channel 9

Father of abducted children, Ali Elamine outside Baabda Courthouse. Picture: AFP

Faulkner had a day and night with her children, even being filmed in the chaotic market streets but the operation was foiled after she rang the children’s father Ali Elamine to reassure him that the children were ok.

Sahar Mohsen, the lawyer for Mohammed Hamza told News Corp Australiashe felt the judge was wrong to lay down kidnapping charges and said there was political pressure.

“The mother was inside the car during the operation and my client was humanly helping the mother and he didn’t get paid,’’ she said.

“He opened his house for them and he called the embassy when she was there to help her. but the embassy didn’t agree to help.

“There has been pressure, political pressure too, and the first and last person who took advantage of all of this, the one who benefited, is the husband. Elamine was paid by the television station and got the mother to give up her custody.’’

Joe Karam, lawyer for Australian Adam Whittington, outside the courthouse in Beirut.

Whittington’s lawyer Joe Karam, who is not related to Claude Karam said the indictment was a step forward because the charges did not include more serious allegations of the formation of a criminal gang.

Mr Karam said the footage of the operation which is now in possession of the court shows that the operation did not involve a weapon. He said the first person who started the operation was Elamine and he generated this chain reaction.

“The judge is in conflict with any case in the court from 1995 that shows a mum and a dad cannot kidnap their children. I am confident that at the indictment chamber they will have a better chance.’’

Speaking last night from her Gold Coast home, Mr Whittington’s mother Georgina said she was ‘worried sick’. She said she had not been officially told about the kidnapping charge and was trying to get information.

“I’m sick to the stomach — I won’t sleep tonight,” she said. “If he has been charged, who knows how much longer he will be in jail over there?

“He hasn’t seen his three kids for three months. It’s such a worry.”

Geprgona Whittington, mother of Adam Whittington who is currently being held in a Lebanese jail. Picture: Scott Fletcher

Mrs Whittington said she was angry at Channel 9 and the Australian Government for ‘abandoning’ her son.

“I’m angry at Channel 9 and I’m angry at (Foreign Minister) Julie Bishop,” she said.

“Julie Bishop said Adam isn’t Australian but that’s a cop-out. He was travelling (to Lebanon) on a British passport.

“Yes, Adam breaks the law going into these countries but he brings (kidnapped) kids home.”

Ali Elamine last night said the current “arrangement” with Ms Faulkner was for her to visit their children in Lebanon.

Given she would face up to seven years in jail if she entered the country, Mr Elamine said: “I don’t know what’s going to happen after this.”

He declined to make any further comment.

The Nine Network issued a statement saying: “We have been advised tonight by our legal team in Lebanon that the charges our 60 Minutes crew are facing in Lebanon have been downgraded. 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.”