Australian mother Sally Faulkner has been reunited with her children after winning temporary custody in a US court.
In 2015, Faulkner’s two children, Lahela (5) and Noah (2), were taken from her by their father, Ali Elamine, during what was meant to be a short holiday in Lebanon.
She made global headlines after a failed child recovery attempt in 2016. Faulkner was detained in Lebanon, along with 60 Minutes presenter Tara Brown and a Channel Nine crew, who had helped in carrying out the operation in return for exclusive coverage of the story.
Faulkner and the 60 Minutes crew were released on bail after Emanine agreed to drop the personal charges against them.
Following this, Elamine and the two children fled Lebanon for the US state of Georgia during last year’s war between Israel and Hezbollah, according to US court documents released to The Guardian.
Faulkner reportedly signed a “consent agreement” at the time, giving him sole custody of the children, but her lawyers claim this was online under “coercion and duress”, as she’d hoped Elamine would remove the children from the war-torn region.
It’s been reported that Faulkner had occasional video and phone calls with her children, but has been working to reunite fully with them for almost 10 years.
Now, The Guardian has exclusively reported that Faulkner returned to Queensland in January with her two children, after she was granted custody.
She travelled to Georgia in November 2024 to see the children, with the The Guardian reporting she filed a temporary protection order in the state, accusing Elamine of family violence during the marriage. When Elamine arrived at their meeting, authorities served him with the order and Faulkner left with the children.
While the court order was later dismissed, a judge granted Faulkner temporary custody in January so that she could participate in a “family reunification program” with her children, that excluded Elamine.
The Guardian reports that the court ruled in August that the program should end and this allowed Elamine a 30-minute phone call with his two children.
The case is ongoing in Georgia.
Faulkner has three more children as well, named Eli, Izac and Lylah, with her partner, Brendan.