The mother at the centre of the 60 Minutes child-snatch drama is set to reunite with her partner Brendan Pierce and their young child when she returns to her Brisbane home today.Ms Faulkner arrived in Sydney last night from Beirut and was expected to catch a connecting flight to Brisbane this morning.Ms Faulkner who had full custody of the children relinquished custodial rights under Australian law to her estranged husband Ali Elamine, so he would drop abduction charges against her that carried a maximum 20 year sentence.
The move secured her release from the Beirut prison she had been in for the past two weeks.Ms Faulkner had her last meal with her children at a McDonalds in the Beirut suburb of Furn El Chebbak and kissed and hugged them at a play centre before she bade farewell to Lahela, 5 and Noah, 3 on Friday.She was reportedly in tears when she left.Speaking to Nine Network shortly after her release, Ms Faulkner said: “I love them and Mummy’s sorry that it all worked out this way. I tried.
Mr Elamine will not let the children return to Australia anytime soon, but Ms Faulkner can visit them in Lebanon or a third country, including the UAE or Cyprus.Asked if it was right to separate the children from their mother, Mr Elamine replied: No, no, we are discussing that, Sal and I, right now. If she is not here, she can Skype them and whenever she feels the need or wants to come over.”
Mr Elamine has not dropped charges against the Child Abduction Recovery International team members who seized the children on a Beirut street as they walked with Mr Elamine’s mother on April 6. The 60 Minutes crew arrived back in Sydney on Thursday night, after a lawyer handed an investigating judge in Beirut a document purporting to show Nine paid $A69,000 to CARD.Dated January 22, 2016, the “payment detail report” generated by ANZ bank notes the fee of $69,000 drawn from the television network’s account was for “investigation into my missing child.
The document supports claims by operation leader, dual Australian-British national Adam Whittington, that he was paid directly by Nine to go to Beirut and take Ms Faulkner’s children from their father.
This is the first instalment of two payments that were given to my client by Channel Nine,” Mr Whittington’s lawyer Joe Karam told AAP in Beirut on Thursday.Sally wanted this, proposed this, Channel Nine had the opportunity of financing this and if it was a successful plan they would have the best scoop.”Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said Nine was “most unwise” in the way it pursued the story and the possibility of money changing hands would be “of interest” to regulators, possibly including the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
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