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60 Minutes saga: Sally Faulkner, Adam Whittington on kidnap charges

Breaking News: Judge rules 60 Minutes team will receive a fine.

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Brisbane mother Sally Faulkner and child recovery agent Adam Whittington have been charged with kidnapping, following the 60 Minutes saga in Lebanon.

A judge in Beirut has ruled the 60 Minutes team will cop a fine, after their arrest and subsequent release earlier this year.

Adam Whittington’s lawyer Joe Karam told Fairfax Media the judge had dropped the more serious charge relating to criminal gangs and formally indicted Whittington, his accomplice Craig Michael and a local Lebanese fixer who helped carry out the operation with kidnapping. A second Lebanese fixer was charged with assault.

It is understood the charge of kidnapping attracts a maximum penalty of three years in prison.

There was little chance that Ms Faulkner would be sent back to prison if there is a trial, her lawyer said earlier this week.

The judge accepted the Nine Network financed and directed the kidnapping operation, something Nine’s own review also acknowledged despite the company’s early insistence it paid Whittington by mistake.

Channel Nine said in a statement they were still expecting a trial, despite the lesser charge.

“We have been advised tonight by our legal team in Lebanon that the charges our 60 Minutes crew are facing in Lebanon have been downgraded,” a Nine spokeswoman told Fairfax.

“There will still be a trial on a date to be determined and out of respect for the Lebanese legal process we will not be making any further comment while the matter is still before the court.”

This post updates.

Source: Fairfax, News Corp, Twitter

4 Responses

  1. Why is it no surprise that channel 9 crew get away with a fine, wasn’t this expected, and I think everyone knew they would not have to return to Lebanon like other people would have to have done if it had have happened to them under the same circumstances. Money definitely talks.

  2. Seems like a very soft penalty so far on 60 minutes. Imagine if the roles were reversed and a lebanese tv show funded and aided a kidnapping in Australia and then got off with a fine.

    if kidnapping charges have been laid hopefully we have heard “child recovery operation” for the last time.

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