Sally Faulkner unable to contact children60 Minutes crew freed from Beirut jailChild recovery team 'hung out to dry'
The Australian-British child-recovery agent Adam Whittington has accused Foreign Minister Julie Bishop of showing "double standards" over the handling of his ongoing detention in Lebanon, suggesting the Nine Networks' 60 Minutes crew received better treatment because they are from a powerful Australian media company.
This came as Mr Whittington met personally with the investigative Judge Rami Abdullah who is presiding over the case and considering whether to recommend charges against the any or all the members of the remaining group for the botched child-recovery operation on   April 6. 
While the Nine crew and Brisbane mother Sally Faulkner, who hired Mr Whittington have all walked free, Mr Whittington and his colleagues who orchestrated and carried out the abduction are still languishing in jail in Beirut. Mr Whittington believes Nine behaved unethically by negotiating a deal with Ms Faulkner's estranged husband Ali Elamine to secure their own release but not the rest of the team's. This is despite the Nine Network paying for the abduction plot and travelling to Beirut to film the entire operation.
Mr Whittington called on the Australian government to also not abandon him in the way the Nine Network had. 
But the Foreign Minister Julie Bishop adamantly denied not doing enough to help Mr Whittington and said initial attempts to access the ex-soldier after his arrest were blocked by Lebanese officials, who said he was being treated as a British citizen because he had entered the country on his UK passport.
Speaking to Fairfax Media through his Lebanese lawyer Joe Karam, Mr Whittington said be believed the Australian government had done more to help the Nine crew escape Beirut than they had done for him.
"Why is there a double standard when an important journalist is involved but a different one when it's a poor citizen?" Mr Whittington said.
Mr Whittington, who heads Child Abduction Recovery International (CARI), said he was satisfied with the assistance he had been given by the British government but argued that as an ex-soldier for the Australian Defence Force and taxpayer, the government could not shirk its constitutional and moral duty to its citizens abroad. 
"Why should Ms Bishop help, push and make calls just because an important journalist is involved?" he said. 
Ms Bishop told Fairfax Media she had, from the start, advocated on the behalf of all Australians, including Mr Whittington, that they would be treated well in detention and have their matter dealt with "expeditiously."
"I have remained in contact with the Lebanese Foreign Minister on Mr Whittington's case since the release on bail of Sally Faulkner and the 60 Minutes crew, including as recently as 5   May," Ms Bishop said.
"Mr Whittington's alleged involvement with Channel Nine or other Australians has no bearing on consular assistance available to him," the Minister stressed.
Ms Bishop said Australian consular officials tried to visit Mr Whittington as soon as they became aware he had been detained on 7   April but were blocked by local authorities. 
"Lebanese judicial authorities advised Australian officials that the UK should take the lead in providing Mr Whittington with consular assistance, because he travelled to Lebanon on a British passport."
"Officials visited him the next day and have done so subsequently, liaising with British authorities on his situation," she said.  
Mr Whittington was not present when the abduction of the two children of Brisbane mother Sally Faulkner took place on a busy shopping strip in the Hezbollah-controlled suburb of Hadath, close to where the children live with their father Ali Elamine and his mother. 
He said he considered the Nine crew had committed greater crimes than he, as the network "planned, paid for and instructed" the plot. 
Mr Whittington is still in detention in Beirut, along with his colleague Craig Michael and two Lebanese fixers, ???Khaled Barbour and Mohammed Hamza, who assisted in the abduction. 
He called on the government to issue the same instructions they had for Australia's "highly distinguished team," led by Ambassador Glenn Miles, to make the same calls and apply the same pressure applied for Ms Faulkner and the Australian crew.
News Corp reported Mr Whittington's lawyer and Mr Elamine's lawyer were close to striking a deal worth $US500,000 (or almost $670,000) for their freedom. 
Mr Elamine is already estimated to have received $500,000 from the Nine Network in return for him dropping charges against his ex-wife and the Nine crew, including presenter Tara Brown. 
Mr Karam said while he was open to negotiating no deal had been struck or talks even begun. 
Mr Karam provided AAP with documents that further implicate the Nine Network as a key player and financier of the botched child abduction plot.
In an email dated   March 16, 2016 to Mr Whittington from a Nine official whose name has been concealed, the network states: "Our stories are based on our reporter being involved at critical moments and that's how I've been able to get approval here for this story."
The email also asks Mr Whittington to "send me an invoice for the final payment of AUD $46,000 as our accounts department needs an invoice to process payments".
Mr Karam has also provided a copy of CARI's invoice.
That is in addition to the electronic funds transfer statement from a Nine bank account of $69,000 to an account associated with CARI.
with AAP
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