A Brisbane mother who was cruelly separated from her two eldest children by her ex-husband in Lebanon has revealed he asked if she could help them obtain Australian passports but is still refusing to let her see them .
Sally Faulkner, who was sensationally arrested in Lebanon in 2016 after flying to Beirut with a 60 Minutes TV crew to collect her ‘kidnapped’ children, has spoken out about her heartbreaking situation for the first time in years.
In 2015, Ms Faulkner’s estranged ex-husband Ali Elamine flew their then five-year-old daughter Lahela and two-year-old son Noah on holiday to his native Lebanon, before later telling her: ‘They’re staying here with me. .’
The move led to years of torment – and to the now infamous failed ‘child recovery operation’.
Now Ms Faulkner, 38, has told Constance Hall on her How to Be Frank podcast that Mr Elamine has recently opened a ‘line of communication… because he wants passports’.
Sally Faulkner (pictured), who was sensationally arrested in Lebanon in 2016 after flying to Beirut with a 60 Minutes TV crew to collect her ‘kidnapped’ children, has spoken out for the first time in years about her heartbreaking situation
Mrs Faulkner pictured with her children Lahela and Noah, whom she has not been allowed to see since 2016
Ms Faulkner told Constance Hall (pictured) on her podcast How to Be Frank that Mr Elamine recently opened a ‘line of communication… because he wants passports’
The childcare worker said she wanted to help her children get passports, but was concerned about her ex’s ‘intentions’.
“I want them to be able to get out of the country if they need to (but) the next thing is that if he disconnects again, and maybe because they’re getting older, he wants that next piece of control where they can’t get away,” Ms. Faulkner told the podcast.
The mother of five said she tried to reach a compromise where she could take her children’s birth certificates with her to meet them somewhere to sign off on the paperwork, but her ex refused, claiming the children did not want to see her.
“I said, ‘This makes me uncomfortable, because how come I can’t hand over the passports and physically hand them over to you, and he says, ‘oh, look, if the trust isn’t there, don’t create one worry about. “,’ she said.
Podcast host Constance Hall then exploded: “If the trust isn’t there? You had me put in jail and you took my children away from me!’
Ms Faulkner said she raised that point with him, but was told by her ex: ‘Don’t go back there’.
Mrs Faulkner, pictured with Lahela and Noah in Australia before her estranged husband kept them in Lebanon
Sally Faulkner (pictured right holding Noah) and former partner Ali Elamine (pictured left holding Lahela) were embroiled in a bitter international custody battle
“I’m hitting my head against a brick wall and once again I’m the bad person,” she said.
“And again he told the children that I am trying to control the situation so that you don’t get the passports.”
Hall later added, “It’s so obvious this is all about revenge because he wants you back.”
In the wide-ranging podcast, Mrs Faulkner revealed the crushing moment she was told she would never see her children again.
“I fell to the floor, the laptop fell to the floor and I just thought, ‘What do I do, this can’t be real?'” she said.
‘It felt like I was leaving my body. It was an immediate trauma because I really knew he wasn’t messing around. It was as if there was no one else in the world.
Lahela (left photo) and Noah (right) pictured last year during Noah’s birthday in Lebanon
Mrs Faulkner had alleged that her estranged husband Ali Elamine (pictured with the couple’s children) had taken the children to Lebanon without her consent
‘I had to tear myself away from it a lot to recover and function. I feel really numb talking about it. But it took a long time to get there.’
Ms Faulkner said she went into ‘desperation mode’ and stayed awake for two days emailing anyone who might be able to help her.
She eventually turned to a child recovery agency called CARI to get her children back and Channel Nine’s flagship news program 60 Minutes covered the costs in exchange for exclusive coverage of the planned reunion.
But what happened next would backfire disastrously and make headlines around the world.
In April 2016, Ms. Faulkner and the The 60 Minutes crew, including famed host Tara Brown, flew to Beirut to bring her children back.
They snatched the children from a Beirut street and Ms Faulkner was briefly reunited with them in a ‘safe house’ before surrendering to police.
Veteran 60 Minutes reporter Tara Brown (pictured center) on a botched child recovery operation that resulted in her arrest by police in Lebanon
Brown (second from left) was arrested along with Brisbane mother Sally Faulkner (center right), 60 Minutes producer Stephen Rice, cameraman Ben Williamson and sound recordist David Ballment
Ms Brown was arrested and charged over the attempted kidnapping, along with senior producer Stephen Rice, cameraman Ben Williamson, sound recordist David Ballment and Ms Faulkner.
If convicted, they faced 20 years in prison and hard labor.
But after spending two weeks in jail, they were released and the charges were later dropped.
“I probably wouldn’t be in jail there anymore if I didn’t have 60 Minutes with me,” Faulkner told the podcast.
‘I was tied to Tara Brown for a day while I was sitting up. I remember just waiting and waiting. There was an interrogation room and you could hear the driver getting the shit beat out of him.”
She added: ‘I thought we were in the worst country for this to happen.’
Channel Nine reportedly paid Mr Elamine $500,000 in the official settlement, after he rejected an earlier offer of $350,000.
Tara Brown is pictured arriving in Australia from Lebanon, flanked by then 60 Minutes producer Stephen Rice, who was later fired by Channel Nine
The botched operation sent shockwaves through the 60 Minutes team. Alison Langdon – now a breakfast show presenter – called it ‘the worst day of my career as a journalist’.
Lebanon, unlike Australia, is not a party to the Hague Convention, a treaty designed to guarantee the speedy return of children abducted internationally by a family member.
Producer Stephen Rice was later fired by Channel Nine after working at the network for 32 years.
Ms Faulkner has since had three more children in Australia: Eli, 7, Izac, 5, and Iylah, 3.
She still has to ask her ex-husband if she can talk to Lahela (13) and Noah (10) via FaceTime.
They each speak three languages and are said to be at the top of their class at school.