This article is from the source 'washpo' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/4-australians-detained-in-lebanon-on-kidnapping-suspicion/2016/04/07/da156940-fc8c-11e5-813a-90ab563f0dde_story.html

The article has changed 5 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 3 Version 4
4 Australians detained in Lebanon on kidnapping suspicion 2 Lebanese-Australian children freed after Beirut abduction
(about 4 hours later)
BEIRUT — Lebanese authorities have detained four Australians, including journalists, on suspicion they were involved in the abductions of two children in Beirut the previous day, police officials and Australian media said Thursday. BEIRUT — Ibtissam Berri was taking her two Australian-Lebanese grandchildren to school when she saw a car parked on the street and a cameraman filming them. Once they came closer, two men jumped out, pushed her and a domestic worker away and whisked the boy and girl off in the car.
A British citizen has been detained as well on suspicion that he planned to smuggle the children out of Lebanon on his boat, the officials also said. That was the beginning of a two-day drama that ended Thursday with Lebanese police saying the children were freed and reunited with their Lebanese father while their Australian mother was detained. In addition to the mother, four Australians, including a TV crew, and two Britons were also detained over the same incident.
The five are being questioned over the kidnapping of Noah and Lahela al-Amin, the son and daughter of a Lebanese man and an Australian woman. The children have been living in Beirut since their father Ali al-Amin brought them from Australia last year, the officials said. The mother, Sally Faulkner, came to Lebanon recently to try to regain custody of her children — 3 1/2 -year-old Noah and 5 ½-year-old Lahela — nearly two years after separating from her ex-husband Ali al-Amin.
The kidnapping, in which the children were taken Wednesday after an attack on their Lebanese grandmother as she was taking them to school near their home in Beirut, was part of a family dispute, the police said. The Wednesday morning abduction in the southern suburb of Hadath occurred just before the rush hour — minutes later, when the Beirut city traffic comes to a near standstill, it would have been almost impossible to carry off.
On Thursday, police first said the mother and the children were at the Australian Embassy but later, the Lebanese intelligence department declared the mother was detained and was being held by police with her children, state-run National News Agency reported. It did not say where they were found but added that the children were safe. Within hours, Lebanese authorities detained five Australians, including a prominent TV presenter and her crew, as well as the children’s mother, two British citizens and two Lebanese on suspicion they were involved in the abduction, police said in a statement.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, did not give the names of the Australians and the Briton. At least one of the Britons is being held on suspicion he planned to smuggle the children out of Lebanon on his boat, docked at a private Beirut hotel, police officials said.
The Australian detainees include journalists working for Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes, who were filming an episode on the issue in Lebanon. Among the detainees is TV presenter Tara Brown. “They were faster than lighting,” Berri, the grandmother, told The Associated Press on Thursday, speaking of the men who took the kids. “One hit me on the head with a pistol butt, knocking me down on the road.”
60 Minutes reporter Michael Usher told Nine News in an interview broadcast on Thursday that Australian consular officials in Beirut were in contact with the 60 Minutes crew. “I held the boy and started screaming ‘They are kidnapping the children.’ No one helped me,” she said, adding the assailants did not look Lebanese. “I was terrified.”
“Our obvious concern is that we have not been able to speak to the crew for going on 15 hours now and that’s obviously been very concerning for all of us here,” Usher said. The abductors made sure her son was not with them, Berri speculated, speaking at her Beirut apartment. Behind her, a photo of Lahela as a baby stood at the dining table. Earlier, her son had gone to a club he owns near Beirut but four people who had called and made an appointment for a wind-surfing lesson never showed up, she said.
Usher added that the journalists detained in Beirut are very experienced and prepared for the difficulties of covering what he called, “a risky operation, a risky story — this desperate Australian mum trying to get her two Australian children home.” Berri said she is a cousin of Lebanon’s powerful Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and the family name is well known.
A Beirut police official said the five detainees were being held at a police station near the place where the boat was parked in the Lebanese capital. During questioning, the journalists said they came on a humanitarian mission and that their aim was not to kidnap the children, he added. The children had lived between Lebanon and Australia until mid-2014, when the mother left the Arab country.
Channel Nine issued a statement earlier Thursday saying that: “We can confirm a crew from 60 Minutes has been detained in Beirut. We won’t be giving out any more details, other than to say we are working with authorities to get them released and back home ASAP.” Berri also said the family has been receiving threatening email and Facebook messages for some time and reported it to the authorities. The school was told only the father and the grandmother could pick up the children.
A Channel Nine employee told The Associated Press in Australia that the 60 Minutes crew was not physically present when the children’s kidnapping took place. There were no details how the kids were found — or what the role of the Australian ex-wife and the TV crew was — but once police handed them back to their father on Thursday, Berri said he took them to a doctor after the shock they had suffered.
Al-Amin told the leading local LBC TV station that he does not plan to sue his former wife. “She is the mother of my children ... if I were her I would have done the same.”
In a television interview last year, Faulkner said she was sure her children wanted to be home with her and that her daughter “tells me she’s lonely because her grandma speaks Arabic, she hasn’t learnt it. He (al-Amin) didn’t teach them.”
The police officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, did not give the names of the other detainees but the Australians include journalists working for Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes who were filming an episode on the case of the two children in Lebanon. Among those detained is TV presenter Tara Brown.
60 Minutes reporter Michael Usher told Nine News in an interview broadcast Thursday that Australian consular officials in Beirut were in contact with the 60 Minutes crew. He said the detained journalists are very experienced.
They were prepared for the difficulties of covering what Usher described as a “risky operation, a risky story — this desperate Australian mum trying to get her two Australian children home.”
A Beirut police official said that during questioning, the journalists said they came on a humanitarian mission and that their aim was not to kidnap the children.
In a statement issued by Channel Nine earlier Thursday, it said it “can confirm a crew from 60 Minutes has been detained in Beirut. We won’t be giving out any more details, other than to say we are working with authorities to get them released and back home ASAP.”
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said her ministry has been in contact with Channel Nine. A statement from Bishop said Australian authorities are “urgently seeking to confirm the crew’s whereabouts and welfare, and have offered all appropriate consular assistance.”Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said her ministry has been in contact with Channel Nine. A statement from Bishop said Australian authorities are “urgently seeking to confirm the crew’s whereabouts and welfare, and have offered all appropriate consular assistance.”
In Beirut, Australian ambassador to Lebanon, Glenn Miles met with Lebanese police chief Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Basbous on Thursday, state-run National News Agency said, without giving details.
______
Gelineau reported from Sydney. Associated Press Writer Kristen Gelineau contributed to this report from Sydney.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.