An Australian mother arrested in Lebanon over a bungled attempt to allegedly snatch back her two children is being “treated right” by authorities, according to her partner.
Sally Faulkner is in custody in Lebanon along with a Nine Network TV crew and members of an international child recovery agency after an attempt to snatch back her children Noah, four, and Lahela, six, from her ex-husband, Ali el-Amin.
Her current partner, Brendan Pierce, says he and the Brisbane woman’s family are coping with the ordeal and that Sally is being treated well.
“Everyone in the family is doing well. Sally is being treated right,” he said. “She is being treated right, I can confirm that but I want to leave it there.”
He would not say whether he had spoken to Faulkner and would not confirm reports the pair had a three-month-old baby.
His comments came as a Lebanese newspaper reported authorities there would charge seven people over the incident on Monday.
The Daily Star reported that two of the nine people arrested over the affair had been released – though it was not clear who they were – and the remaining seven would likely be charged over the abduction.
Noah and Lahela were allegedly snatched from their paternal grandmother on a busy Beirut street by a group of masked men on Thursday.
The children were handed over to Faulkner but the agents and a film crew from the Nine Network’s 60 Minutes, including reporter Tara Brown, were arrested a short time later.
Faulkner was arrested the following day and the children have been returned to their father, who has said he won’t press charges against his ex-wife.
Nine has not responded to allegations it paid more than $100,000 to the child recovery agency to facilitate the operation.
The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has said the government was offering consular assistance to the arrested Australians.
“We are seeking through the usual diplomatic channels to ensure that they are kept safe and will be able to return,” Turnbull told reporters in Sydney.
“But you have to understand that, in situations like these, often the less I say the better it is for the people that are at risk or in these difficult circumstances overseas.”
On Sunday, the foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, said the 60 Minutes TV crew would soon find out if they were to be charged.
“At this stage we understand that they are still being held in detention and that the question of charges is an issue that will be determined shortly,” she told ABC radio on Sunday.
Bishop said the Australian government was offering consular assistance to the crew, including Brown.
Amin, a surfing instructor living in the Beirut suburb of St Therese, said he was shocked by the attempted kidnapping of the children, but he was not angry at his partner. Amin has been reunited with the children.
Faulkner, from Brisbane, claims her ex-husband refused to bring them back to Australia after taking them on holiday to Beirut.
