Pollyana

What do people think about this?

I've read several cases in the past where children have been taken to the Middle East or the Indian subcontinent by a parent on the pretext of 'holidays' and then never been brought home again - and I'm also aware of cases where the children are taken to other countries against the wishes of one parent, I know its not always an eastern issue.

Should the TV crew have got involved in this one, to this extent? Are they now getting their just desserts?
And should the Australian government be getting involved- where will it leave them in future cases if they support the actions of the TV crew?

One thing I don't understand is - if the courts in Australia had made a ruling saying that it would be legal to get the children back - why wasn't it registered in lebanon to allow her, with police backing, to do just that? Can anyone interpret that one for me?

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60 Minutes: Mother pleads with husband to drop Lebanon child abduction charges in exchange for custody - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Australian mother Sally Faulkner has asked estranged husband Ali el-Amien to drop Lebanese abduction charges against her in exchange for her renouncing all claims to custody and cooperating in getting a divorce.
Ms Faulkner and four members of a Channel Nine 60 Minutes crew were among a group of people arrested after an attempt to take Ms Faulkner's two children off the streets of the capital, Beirut.

If Mr el-Amien agrees to drop the charges, Ms Faulkner will give up sole custody granted to her by the Family Court in Australia.

The Australian Family Court ruling, granted on December 15, even allowed Australian police or agents appointed by Ms Faulkner to get her children back — but she did not register it in Lebanon.

Ms Faulkner's Lebanese lawyer Ghassan Moghabghab said: "It's a very strong judgement and we are sorry that it's not being used .

"Especially when you read the articles of the judgement, it was obviously 100 per cent to her favour."

Bermudashorts

Not really enough information to comment to be honest. Where they taken to Lebanon on the pretext of a holiday? Or were they legitimately living there, perhaps with their mother as well at one point? If they were living there legitimately, then it is not up to Australian courts to say they should be returned to Australia. In this case she is not really in a position to strike a bargain but should probably consider herself pretty fortunate if it is agreed to.

Pollyana

I aree there has to be a lot more to it than in the mainstream media.
Bit bemused by the TV crew getting so openly involved, to be honest. I've seen documentaries, and read books,by people in similar situations, and even when there was a contract floating around it has always looked like the media kept their distance. I just cannot understand why this crew leapt in with cameras blazing - and possibly thereby drew official attention to the case.

Beoz

If Channel 9 suffer from this, they won't get my sympathy.

A network who attempt to sell the own worthless stars on the bogan. The poor bogan just doesn't know any better.

Channel 9 are cheap organisation who have one formula - hook the bogan, keep them hooked, by trying to embed other average bogans into their homes. Good to see the footy show ratings on the floor too.

spouse of scouse

I wish we could be told the entire truth in cases such as this. If Ms Faulkner really did have a good chance of getting her kids back with the help of the AFP (due to the Family court ruling), then why the hell would she take the risk of involving the media and an overseas based 'professional' group of child recovery workers, or whatever they're called?

I feel really sorry for her. To have your children taken away, especially when they're so young, must be heartbreaking. But by far the primary consideration shouldn't be for the Mum, or the Dad, but for the kids. For their physical and emotional well-being, for their education and for their future.

Geordie George

Yep. And subjecting them to a kidnapping attempt doesn't really seem to be about that. The terror those children must have felt ...

BEVS

This briefly made the news here.
Yes. The puzzle is why wasn't it registered as it should have been/

GarryP

As I understand it lebanon, and most of the middle east, etc. are not signatories to the Hague Convention (the agreement on kids and court orders). They also tend to favour the husband over the wife, in contrast to western court that favour the wife over the husband. They obviously would also tend to favour the national over the foreigner, particularly since the husband also had a Shia court order in HIS favour; it's certainly not clear cut.

As such, I get the feeling the Australia court ruling would have been ignored, which is probably why it wasn't bought before the court (so they wouldn't rule, so any recovery of the kids wouldn't be against a lebanon court order). You can see a reasonable logic to it - if you can grab the kids successfully.

Seems like possession is 9/10th of the law in international kid cases.

Dorothy

What do you think the Australian government would do if it were a Lebanese father who came onto the streets of Sydney with a group of "professional" child recovery operators and a television crew, cameras blazing, and tried to take his children from their Australian mother?

No, I have no sympathy for the predicament this news crew or this woman find themselves in at all. It was foolish to say the very least. As someone else said, imagine how those poor children felt with an attempted abduction on the streets.

Pollyana

Poor kids must have been terrified.

Kim67

Yep, that's exactly why women have to go to crazy lengths to try and get their kids back from the middle eastern partners - a mother has no rights to her kids. So many stories when I was living in the Middle East, one kiwi mum who lost her husband had to flee the country in the middle of the night with her kids because her deceased husband's family were going to take the kids off her. One British mum was jailed and had her kids taken off her because she was apparently having an affair, meanwhile the husband was hanging at the local pool with his pregnant young bit on the side and his kids while mum rots in jail. And it's not just locals, if my ex had died while we were there and there was no formal documentation in place from him to say that he gave me permission to have my own children, they would have been placed in to foster care until his closest male relative could come and retrieve them.

As to whether 60 Minutes should have gotten involved, who knows, they'll do anything for ratings, but if I was the mother and could talk them into doing it for me, I would.

Gordon Barlow

But surely the women know that when they go into such a marriage! Or are they all stupid? Surely they deserve to be jailed for child neglect...

spouse of scouse

Eh? A man removes his kids and denies their mother any contact at all, and the woman deserves to be jailed for child neglect? Not to put too fine a point on it, that's bollocks.

Beoz

Ouch .... You could be in trouble now.

Geordie George

But the men who marry these stupid women know they're marrying an idiot, so they must be really, really stupid. Particularly knowing they're putting their children at risk of being abducted by the mother. They deserve to be jailed for child endangerment.