Adam Whittington, (pictured) the chief planner of the 60 Minutes botched 'child abduction' in Lebanon, said on Sunday that he can prove Channel Nine paid him more than $115,000 for the snatch
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'For them to claim they weren't involved is a joke'
'60 Minutes paid me to carry out the kidnapping'
-Adam Whittington
Mr Whittington was hired to plan and carry out a botched 'child abduction'
Adam Whittington claims he received direct payment from Channel Nine - He claims he has two wire transfers from the media network's accounts
Mr Whittington is in jail in Beirut with Sally Faulkner and a 60 Minutes crew
He also said the children's mother Ms Faulkner is looking out for herself ...this comes after it was reported she is negotiating with her husband
Her lawyer Ghassan Moghabghab said that talks had broken down
Adam Whittington, the chief planner of the 60 Minutes botched 'child abduction' in Lebanon, said on Sunday that he can prove Channel Nine paid him more than $115,000 for the snatch. Whittington claims he received the large sum in two separate internet wire transfers months ago
Reporter Tara Brown (pictured) has been detained on kidnapping charges with a 60 Minutes crew that filmed the 'child abduction' of Sally Faulkner's two children in Lebanon on April 7
Ms Faulkner (pictured) travelled to Lebanon to retrieve her children, Noah, four, and Lahela, six
'It was direct from Channel Nine, it was from their accounts department and they paid it in two instalments,' he told News Corp from the Baabda detention centre on Sunday.'I have the receipts and internet payments, for them (Channel Nine) to claim they weren't involved is a joke.'
Mr Whittington's allegations come one day after he complained to News Corp about the appalling jail conditions and accused Brisbane mother Sally Faulkner of 'throwing everyone under the bus.'|
On April 7, the TV crew filmed Ms Faulkner's attempt to retrieve her children Noah, four, and Lahela, six, from her husband Ali Elamine, who she claims kept them in Lebanon without her permission.
On Wednesday, Ms Faulkner was charged with kidnapping. The 60 Minutes crew, including journalist Tara Brown, is accused of: hiding information, forming an association with two or more people to commit a crime against a person, kidnapping or holding a minor even with their approval, and physical assault.
A total of seven people are facing charges as a result of the operation.
Ms Faulkner's claims her children Noah and Lahela were taken to Lebanon by her estranged husband Ali Elamine (pictured with Noah and Lahela) in 2015 and he refused to bring them back
It was reported that Mr Elamine said he would drop the charges against Ms Faulker is she agreed he could have sole custody
Mr Whittington said on Saturday that the operation to bring Ms Faulkner's children back to Australia was doomed and now she is weaving a different tale so she can be released at the expense of the seven other people in jail.
In the jail, Mr Whittington said 'the rats are as big as cats, it is so small [they] can't move, and the toilet in the ground is blocked.'
Although there were talks that Ms Faulkner's estranged husband might agree to drop the kidnapping charges against her if she agrees to give him sole custody, herher Lebanese lawyer Ghassan Moghabghab said on Saturday night that negotiations had broken down.
Ali Elamine - who allegedly took their children to Lebanon in 2015 and never returned - said he would grant her access rights if she agreed to never take the children to Australia, out of fear that she wouldn't bring them back.
She must also agree to a full religious divorce - a list of demands Ms Faulkner's lawyer Ghassan Moghabghab says he will be able to secure because he has legal rights to the children in Lebanon.
'Legally he is the one with custody,' her Lebanese lawyer Ghassan Moghabghab told the News Corp.
Ghassan Mughaghab (pictured), the lawyer for Brisbane woman Sally Faulkner, said negotiations between Mr Elamine and Ms Faulkner had broken down
Ali Elamine (pictured) has to decide whether to pursue child kidnap charges again his estranged wife Sally Faulkner which may get her 20 years in prisonMr Moghabghab warned that because Mr Elamine had been granted sole care of the children from religious authorities, he would likely be calling all the shots in the international custody battle.
If an agreement is reached between the estranged pair over the weekend, it could be registered in the next court appearance on Monday and Ms Faulkner could be on a flight back to Brisbane within the week, without her children.
Speaking to ABC's 7.30, Mr Moghabghab revealed that there would be a very favourable flow-on effect for the 60 Minutes Crew if Ms Faulkner and Mr Elamine reached a private agreement.
'When there is not (kidnapping charges) - when he withdraws his charges, there will be only the public charges here, and everything will - they will not go out there indefinitely, but they will take this into consideration,' he said.
'When there is not charges from Mr Elamine, it will be a much more better for her.'
'It will help everybody, I think. It will help everybody.'
'It will help everybody, I think. It will help everybody': Ms Faulkner's lawyer says that if Mr Elamine drops the personal kidnapping charges against her, it will have a favourable flow-on effect for the whole team
'It will help everybody, I think. It will help everybody': Ms Faulkner's lawyer says that if Mr Elamine drops the personal kidnapping charges against her, it will have a favourable flow-on effect for the whole team
Sally Faulkner's lawyer has reportedly said she was paid for by the Nine Network and had used money given to her by 60 Minutes to the child recovery agency, Child Abduction Recovery International
Sally Faulkner's lawyer has reportedly said she was paid for by the Nine Network and had used money given to her by 60 Minutes to the child recovery agency, Child Abduction Recovery International
Meanwhile, Mr Elamine has remained tight-lipped about the entire ordeal, instead focusing on the wellbeing of his two children and mother - who was allegedly hit with a pistol on the head during the dramatic kidnapping that was captured on security cameras.
'We're keeping to ourselves about the whole situation, there is a personal side, a family side and a judicial side to all of this and all I can say at the moment is everyone is doing okay and we are getting through this process,' he told The Daily Telegraph.
'I took her to the doctors for a check up on head scan today, she is okay.
'On that (pistol) I can't really tell you what happened I wasn't there but she was and I have read reports that that is what she said.
Veteran journalist Stephen Rice (left), David Ballment (centre) and Benjamin Williamson (right) are also in custody in Lebanon
In her only interview on the matter so far, Ms Faulkner told The Australian on Friday she was doing well behind bars at Baabda Central Women's Prison in south-eastern Beirut.'Please tell my mum and dad how well I am and also (husband) Brendan and my in-laws,' she said. Ms Brown is also behind bars at the prison.
'I am fine but my loved ones need to know that.'
The Channel Nine TV crew was planning to film Faulkner's attempt to retrieve her children Noah, three, and Lahela, five, from her ex-husband Ali Elamine, who she claims kept them in Lebanon without her permission.
Prosecutors had earlier claimed they had a signed statement from a member of the recovery team saying Nine had paid $115,000 for the operation.
CCTV footage supplied by Lebanese authorities appeared to show the bungled kidnapping earlier this week
Ms Faulkner and the Channel Nine TV crew members appeared handcuffed in a Lebanese court on Wednesday, where they were remanded in custody to face court again on Monday.Lebanese Investigative Judge Rami Abdullah said there was 'no way' the charges against the crew will be dropped. The offences carry penalties of up to 20 years in jail.
Nine Network spokeswoman Victoria Buchan said: 'I hope you understand that we never comment on money but also we are not making any comments in this matter as it is currently a matter before the Lebanese judicial system which we respect. It is not appropriate at this time.'
A conviction could mean the male 60 Minutes crew risk ending up in Beirut's infamous Roumieh prison, one of the largest jails in the Middle East with 5,500 inmates.
LEBANON KIDNAP CASE: WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR
THE MUM, THE TV CREW AND THE KIDNAPPING CASE
Brisbane mum Sally Faulkner and a Nine Network TV crew made up of reporter Tara Brown, producer Stephen Rice, cameraman Ben Williamson and sound recordist David Ballment, are facing kidnapping and assault charges in Lebanon following a bungled abduction of Ms Faulkner's two children in Beirut.
WHAT HAPPENED?
The Australians have spent a week behind bars in Beirut after being arrested for the alleged abduction on April 7.
The TV crew was filming Faulkner's attempt to retrieve her children Noah, four, and Lahela, six, from her ex-husband Ali Elamine, who she claims kept them in Lebanon without her permission.
A professional agency, Child Abduction Recovery International, is believed to have been hired to snatch the children. Two of its members, named in media reports as Britons Adam Whittington and Craig Michael, have also been detained and charged.
THE ABDUCTION
Security camera footage shows masked men jumping out of a car and snatching the kids from their grandmother and another woman on a Beirut street. The grandmother claims she was attacked and hit on the head with a pistol.
The TV crew and recovery agency members were arrested shortly afterwards, while Faulkner hid with her two children in a safe house. Authorities later found the family, arrested Faulkner and returned the children to their father.
THE CHARGES
Faulkner is facing kidnapping charges.
The 60 minutes crew is accused of:
- hiding information
- forming an association with two or more people to commit a crime against a person
- kidnapping or holding a minor even with their approval
- physical assault.
The offences carry penalties of up to 20 years in jail.
LEGAL CASE SO FAR
Judge Rami Abdullah told the Australians during a second round of interviews on Wednesday that there was no chance their charges would be dropped. However, he indicated that if Mr Elamine was willing to drop legal action and come to an agreement with his estranged wife, that would help the case against all of the accused. The accused will remain in detention until facing the Baabda Palace of Justice again on Monday. Nine has refused to comment on speculation it organised and funded the recovery operation.
Former hostage Warren Rodwell slams 60 Minutes: ‘Kidnapping can never be excused’
ReplyDeleteWHEN Warren Rodwell was kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf terrorists in the Philippines and held captive for 472 days, it made him question everything he knew. He was cuffed, shot through the hand, mistreated and starved. He was left isolated in a mountainous warzone for 10 weeks and imprisoned the rest of the time. He was delirious. Once he was freed in 2013, the former soldier says he looked like a prisoner of war, and was grappling with his sanity. The only thing he says he knew for sure at that time was that kidnapping had started this, and no good could come of the crime.
Still bearing the scars of his time held captive, Mr Rodwell had the same thought when he heard of the kidnapping of two children in Lebanon, taken from a Beirut street while they were out with their grandmother two weeks ago. It would of course come out that the snatch had been ordered by the children’s mother, with the help of a 60 Minutes crew who intended to broadcast the operation, and carried out by a notorious child recovery agency. They claimed the children had been abducted by their father and taken to Lebanon against the mother’s wishes, and that by returning the kids to their mum and their Brisbane home they were carrying out a good and honest act. All Mr Rodwell could think was: “That’s absurd.”
“I first saw it as 60 Minutes wanting to show kidnapping as a good thing,” he told news.com.au.
“Because I had been kidnapped myself, my first reaction was repulsion. The thought of trying to show kidnapping as a good thing, I thought that was atrocious and ludicrous.” The Channel 9 crew led by network star Tara Brown, and the mother of the two children Sally Faulkner, were punished by spending close to two weeks in a Beirut prison following their arrest. They were freed overnight after Nine agreed to pay an undisclosed amount in compensation to the children’s father Ali Elamine.
Members of Child Abduction Recovery International (CARI) who carried out the “child recovery” operation, Adam Whittington and Craig Michael, have been left to the mercy of the Lebanese courts, with Nine taking no responsibility, saying “they are not part of our team”. Though Mr Rodwell said he was “shocked” by what the agency had done, he believed there had been an “imbalance of equity” in how the situation had been dealt with, especially if it eventuated that Nine had made payments to the kidnappers.
“I’m shocked at what they do, and that they’re allowed to do it and carry on as a business. Whatever licencing they have has to be looked into,” he said. “If someone engages an agent, that agent acts on their behalf. If something goes wrong, the person responsible is someone who engaged them.” Mr Rodwell said that 60 Minutes had become “over-involved” in the story, and should take the fall. He said he was disgraced by the program’s apparent intention to promote kidnapping.
“In calling it child recovery, it makes it sound like it’s a rescue mission,” he said. “The question to be asked is with these child recovery agencies, are they in effect something similar to bounty hunters?”
Mr Rodwell said his own experience had opened his eyes to how bad kidnapping can be, and says it should never be promoted. “Kidnapping itself, as I got a glimpse of, is scratching the surface of people trafficking, and it’s not a thing anywhere that you could really condone. Kidnapping can never be excused,” he said.
Although he was damning of the entire Lebanon fiasco, Mr Rodwell said his experience had helped him sympathise with Ms Faulkner on one point. “From what I understand, the mother admitted from the beginning she was naive by agreeing to the children going on vacation. I can appreciate her position because apparently she took it as far as she could in what she could achieve in Australia, but apparently the Foreign Minister couldn’t do anything more,” he said.
ReplyDelete“I have had a similar experience myself, because before coming back to Australia after being kidnapped, I had the DFAT, the AFP, ADF and ASIO all assigned to my own case, and it was explained to me quite clearly that before coming back to Austraila, there was seemingly nothing they would be able to do for me, there was no follow through, once I was back in Australia I had to go back in the queue to access any services.
“She was desperate, but still, the argument has been put that as a mother you would do anything to get your children back, but if that results in someone being in prison for up to 20 years, what benefit is that to the children?”
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Warren Rodwell kidnapping by Abu Sayyaf in Mindanao 2011 - 2013 .SITUATION NOT NORMAL - Song written by Warren R Rodwell - The longest held Australian captive outside war. Composed & Performed by Mad Cowboy Disease / Produced by Stewart Peters SoundShed Music Blackheath NSW Australia.
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https://www.youtube.com/embed/-0wS5uLlG7w
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