Lebanon detains Australian TV crew over child custody row
Date
4/7/2016 12:10:08 PM
BEIRUT: Lebanese police have detained anAustralian film crew and accused them of involvement in akidnapping of two children from their Lebanese father on behalfof their Australian mother.
"Four Australian nationals have been stopped on suspicion ofkidnapping the two children" the Lebanese internal securityservices said on their Twitter account.
CCTV footage broadcast on Lebanese TV appeared to show thetwo children who the father said were aged five and threebeing bundled into a car by several attackers on a busy street
in southern Beirut. The children's grandmother told media shehad been hit on the head with a pistol during the abduction.
The father Ali Zeid al-Amin said by phone that he wasscared for the children's safety but that they were with theirmother. "It's their mum that kidnapped them and that's what weknow. She contacted me and told me she has the kids" he said.
The four-member crew was making a film about the mother'sefforts to recover her children for the Australian currentaffairs show "60 Minutes". The incident took place in the Hadatharea of southern Beirut at 7.10am on Wednesday.
Lebanon unlike Australia is not a signatory of the HagueConvention on the Civil Aspects of International ChildAbduction which allows for children normally resident in onelocation to be returned if taken by a relative.
Lebanese Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk was quoted onThursday as saying the crew were "involved in abducting the twochildren and detained in respect of their participation in the
kidnapping operation".
Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has beenin contact with Channel 9 over reports of the crew's detentiona spokesman of Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said.
"A crew has been detained. Our people are working with theauthorities to have them released as soon as possible" aspokesman for Channel 9 said.
"We are urgently seeking to confirm the crew's whereaboutsand welfare and have offered all appropriate consularassistance" he said.
Reuters