The ’60 Minutes’ crew implicated by authorities in Lebanon over the indisputably weird child snatch on the streets of Beirut are expected to be charged tonight, Australian time.
This story has been completely wild from the get go. To get you up to speed: Lebanese police allege that ’60 Minutes’ paid an international agency $120,000 to take the children of Australian mother Sally Faulkner, who claims that her husband took them to Lebanon on a trip and never returned.
Australia doesn’t have treaties with Lebanon that would more easily enable their return through regular legal channels, so you can understand the mother’s desperation. Perhaps not the part where a TV show paid a child recovery agency to take the kids in broad daylight on a Beirut street and, uh, pistolwhip their grandma.
It’s a disaster from start to finish. Channel Nine news boss Darren Wick is currently in Lebanon to provide support for crew while they await their potential charges. Apparently two of the nine people arrested have been released, but it is not clear who.
Ms Faulkner was arrested and the children returned to their father, who says he won’t press charges against his ex-wife. Nine has not addressed claims that it was the source of the money paid to the agency.
“The last thing our team wanted was to be a subject of their own story,” the network said on ‘60 Minutes’ last night. Hmm, yes. Quite.
Source: News.com.au
Photo: 60 Minutes.
