Ali Al-Amin

CCTV

•   Authorities say they have evidence Channel Nine paid for the abduction
•     Say they have a signed statement from a member of the ‘recovery team’
•     Nine reportedly paid $115,000 for the operation, but this is unconfirmed  
•     CCTV footage shows two children being snatched off the street in Beirut
•     The mother, Sally Faulkner, has been arrested in Lebanon after the incident
•     Australian journalist Tara Brown and her crew also detained in Lebanon
•     They were filming a story about the recovery of two Australian children
•     Brown, producer Stephen Rice and sound operator are being held by police
•     The children’s father, Ali el-Amien, slammed the alleged kidnapping
•     Mr el-Amien said it endangered the lives of Noah, 4, and Lahela, 5

The guardian- The partner of an Australian mother arrested in Lebanon over a bungled attempt to allegedly snatch back her two children says she is being “treated right” by authorities. Sally Faulkner is in custody in Lebanon along with a Nine Network TV crew
and members of an international child recovery agency after an attempt
to snatch back her children Noah, four, and Lahela, six, from her
ex-husband, Ali el-Amien. Her current partner, Brendan Pierce, says he and the Brisbane woman’s
family are coping with the ordeal and that Sally is being treated well.

“Everyone in the family is doing well. Sally is being treated right,”
he said. “She is being treated right, I can confirm that but I want to
leave it there.”

He would not say whether he had spoken to Faulkner and would not confirm reports the pair had a three-month-old baby.

His comments came as a Lebanese newspaper reported authorities there would charge seven people over the incident on Monday.

The Daily Star reported that two of the nine people arrested over the
affair had been released – though it was not clear who they were – and
the remaining seven would likely be charged over the abduction.

Noah and Lahela were allegedly snatched from their paternal
grandmother on a busy Beirut street by a group of masked men on
Thursday.

The children were handed over to Faulkner but the agents and a film
crew from the Nine Network’s 60 Minutes, including reporter Tara Brown,
were arrested a short time later.

Faulkner was arrested the following day and the children have been returned to their father, who has said he won’t press charges against his ex-wife

Nine has not responded to allegations it paid more than $100,000 to the child recovery agency to facilitate the operation.

The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has said the government was offering consular assistance to the arrested Australians.

“We are seeking through the usual diplomatic channels to ensure that
they are kept safe and will be able to return,” Turnbull told reporters
in Sydney.

“But you have to understand that, in situations like these, often the
less I say the better it is for the people that are at risk or in these
difficult circumstances overseas.”

On Sunday, the foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, said the 60
Minutes TV crew would soon find out if they were to be charged.

“At this stage we understand that they are still being held in
detention and that the question of charges is an issue that will be
determined shortly,” she told ABC radio on Sunday.

Bishop said the Australian government was offering consular assistance to the crew, including Brown.

Faulkner’s ex-husband, Ali al-Amin, a surfing instructor living in
the southern suburb of St Therese, said he was shocked by the attempted
kidnapping of the children, but he was not angry at his partner for
attempting to take, Lahela, six, and Noah, four, back to Australia.

Amin has been reunited with his children.

Faulkner, from Brisbane, claims her ex-husband refused to bring them back to Australia after taking them on holiday to Beirut.

She has long hoped to get her children back to Australia.