BEIRUT
(AP) — An Australian mother and TV crew detained in Beirut amid a
botched attempt to take the woman’s two children from their Lebanese
father were released on bail Wednesday, in a dramatic climax to a
high-profile child custody battle that has spanned two continents.

Ali
al-Amin, the father of the two children, aged 3 and 5, announced he has
dropped attempted kidnapping charges against his estranged Australian
wife Sally Faulkner and the Channel 9 TV crew, because he “didn’t want
the kids to think I was keeping their mother in jail.” Lawyers and the judge involved in the case would not comment about whether any compensation was involved. Faulkner
and the four-person TV crew, led by prominent Australian TV journalist
Tara Brown, left a jail in Baabda, a Beirut suburb, in a white van,
escorted by an Australian Embassy car. Once inside the vehicle they
embraced one another.

Their
release was the latest in an international saga that included a
controversial “child recovery agency” and a national broadcast crew that
gripped headlines both in Australia and the Middle East.

The
five Australians are implicated in the operation to seize the two
children from Al-Amin two weeks ago. Two Britons and two Lebanese have
also been charged in the case, and they remain in jail.

Faulkner has previously said al-Amin moved the children from Australia to Lebanon without her permission.

She
surrendered any custody claims to the two children in Lebanon as part
of a deal struck with the father in front of a judge Wednesday, her
lawyer said.

“She
will accept that the children will stay with their father,” said the
attorney, Ghassan Moughabhab, who acknowledged that al-Amin had received
a judgment earlier in his favor from a Lebanese religious court.
“Taking into consideration the Lebanese law, he’s in the right.”

Al-Amin
said he would raise the young children in Lebanon and would allow
Faulkner to visit them. He said he could imagine taking the children to
visit their mother in Australia, but only at some point in the future.

“When
everything cools down and we come to our senses in regards to all this,
then yes,” said the father. “There’s still a bit of tension but at the
end of the day, we have to come to some sort of balanced relation
between her and I.”

Faulkner,
who was released to the custody of the Australian Embassy, is expected
to meet Ali and their two children at the courthouse Thursday, before
leaving the country the day after. The TV crew is expected to leave
Lebanon promptly.

Investigative
Judge Rami Abdullah said the state still has to review whether to drop
public charges against the suspects, but that Faulkner and the camera
crew were free to leave Lebanon once they posted bail.

“There is a crime that happened, and everyone has a role in the affair,” said Abdullah.

Faulkner
and the TV crew will be expected to return to Lebanon to stand trial if
the public charges are not dropped, Abdullah said.

Despite the release of the five Australians, others detained in the case were still in custody.

British-Australian
Adam Whittington, who heads the Britain-based agency Child Abduction
Recovery International, and is alleged to have masterminded the botched
attempt to snatch the children in Beirut, remains in jail, along with
another Briton, Greg Michael.

Their lawyer said their outcomes should be tied to the fate of the Channel 9 crew.

“Both of them came here based on instructions from Channel 9, who paid for their program,” said the attorney, Joe Karam.

According
to Whittington, the TV network deposited over $100,000 in fees to his
agency’s account to finance the operation. Karam added that Whittington
was unaware of breaking Lebanese law.

“My client believed he was assisting a mother get back her children. She had an Australian court order,” he said.

Two
Lebanese men also remain in jail. Sahar Mohsin, attorney for Mohammad
Hamza, said her client was simply hired to drive the getaway vehicle,
and was unaware of any illegal plot when he joined the crew.

Al-Amin
dismissed the alibi, challenging Mohsin outside the court: “Ask (Hamza)
how long he was sitting outside my building, observing me.”

The
two children at the center of the case were snatched from their
grandmother — al-Amin’s mother — and a domestic worker while they were
on their way to school in Beirut two weeks ago. Security camera footage
showed assailants knocking the grandmother, Ibtisam Berri, to the ground
before driving off with the children in a Hyundai sedan. A man was seen
filming the scene from the car.

According
to reports, the children were promptly united with Faulkner, and she
placed a call to al-Amin to inform him they were safe and in her
custody.

Whittington,
who according to his lawyer was not physically present at the scene,
had arranged to smuggle Faulkner and the children to Cyprus by boat, and
had one waiting at a resort on the Beirut coast.

But
they were detained before they made it to the resort. A police sweep
detained other suspects, including members of the 60 Minutes crew,
within the next 24 hours.

The
Lebanese police also promptly returned the children to their father and
paternal grandmother. Al-Amin said his mother suffered a head injury in
the assault but was recovering. She also dropped her charges against
Faulkner and the TV crew.

He
also said he was inclined to empathize with the Australian crew,
especially the technicians, after meeting them in the courthouse, where
he learned that at least one of them, Benjamin Williamson, was also a
father.

“I was in his place before, you know, frustrated, I can’t see my kids, and I felt bad,” said al-Amin.

Faulkner has a three-month old child with another father, in Australia.