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The 60 Minutes crew arrested in Beirut are on their way home to Australia after being released from custody with Brisbane mum Sally Faulkner.

Last night we shared kidnapping charges against Tara Brown and a 60 Minutes crew detained in Lebanon have been dropped.

The crew has touched down in Dubai in transit and is expected to arrive in Sydney later this evening, 9 NEWS reports.

Brown said the first thing she did after being freed was call her husband, John McAvoy.

“Had a chance to call John – I was ordered to call home straight away,” Brown told 9NEWS with a laugh.

“But not the kids yet, I can’t wait to speak to them obviously, although they have no idea about any of this.”

“It’s great to talk to home and it’s great to be going home.”

Sally Faulkner said she was “just so glad to be out of there”.

“I mean they treated us well, I can’t complain about that, it’s just the uncertainty that sort of kept me awake at night, not knowing if it was going to be a life-long sentence,” she said.

Ms Faulkner will be staying in Beirut for a custody hearing with her estranged partner Ali Elamine.

Sally Faulkner_750x516

Mr Elamine last night told a judge he wanted the charges dropped against the group.

He said he believed the news team, led by veteran reporter Brown, was “just doing their job”.

But as reported by SBS News, the reaction on social media has been quite icy with many saying “they got off easy.”

<blockquoteclass=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”>

The more journos do this ‘they maybe broke the law, but…’, the angrier public becomes at unethical #60Mins pic.twitter.com/VpF7Traaj3

— The Daily Rupert (@TheMurdochTimes) April 21, 2016

Nine Network has launched a review into the saga, with Chief executive Hugh Marks saying in an email that Nine should have never become “part of the story”.

“At no stage did anyone from Nine or 60 Minutes intend to act in any way that made them susceptible to charges that they breached the law or to become part of the story that is Sally’s story,” Mr Marks said.

“But we did become part of the story and we shouldn’t have.”

Former 60 Minutes executive producer Gerald Stone will head the review, alongside Nine executive David Hurley and the broadcaster’s in-house general counsel Rachel Launders.

The internal inquiry will “ascertain what went wrong and why our systems, designed to protect staff, failed to do so in this case”.

Share your comments below.

Image via 9 News

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  • I’m glad they got out because it would have a stupid mistake to end up in life prison for. I don’t think we know the full story so I don’t I can have an opinion on who is right or wrong. But it always sucks when kids are you involved

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  • Custody issues between different countries are so complicated. I hope the children are safe and well.

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  • I do think that we tend to think differently when its the Mum thats the one trying to snatch the children but if its the Dad we feel quite harshly. That way of thought is not fair at all.

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  • Yes there does need to be an investigation. We don’t know the full story.only the people that are involved know.
    I’m glad they are on their way home but I think it’s sad about the custody rights

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  • I saw an interview with the father. I’m not even sure this is an actual story. It sounded very made up, odd and scripted. Sensationalism at its greatest or what?

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  • How come the guy suddenly decided he didn’t want the changed?? He had got the money he wanted !!! And he didn’t Channel 9 to be able to update on custody arrangements, and the Recovery guy who is still in custody.

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  • 60 minutes sure did get their story.

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  • The mother lost her custody rights? :-( Oh my! This is so terribly wrong!

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  • In the name of a story two kids have lost there mum and people have been hurt beyond words there is no happiness in this story

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  • There definetly needs to be an internal enquiry but I’m glad the 60 minute crew are on their way home.

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  • And what about the 2 not released, still in prison, the ones channel 9 didn’t pay for? Poor buggers! And the mum, signing over custody rights to be released, the dad did alright out of this didn’t he? No more custody battle plus a million in the bank. Very nice

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  • I hope Ms Faulkner retains some custody/ contact with her children. I cannot believe that anything else would be in their interest.

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  • I hate the fact, that they have made the father of the children, probably super rich, and he got the kids. Of course he would strike a deal – 60 minutes, I believe should never have got involved, because it was Sally who through the 1st punch when she brought them to Australia for a holiday, yet once she arrived, tore up their passports. She was wrong!!!!

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  • At the end of the day how sad is all this for the kids :(

    Reply

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