SALLY Faulkner was depressed and deteriorating behind bars, her lawyer said yesterday.
The desperate Brisbane mother is trying to negotiate a deal with her estranged husband in a bid to be released from Baabda Prison. 
The sticking point is Ali Elamine's insistence Ms Faulkner be granted only visitation rights to Lahela, 6, and Noah, 4.
Ms Faulkner's Lebanese lawyer, Ghassan Moghabghab, said Mr Elamine would get everything he wanted because he had the legal rights in -Lebanon.
Mr Elamine had obtained authority from religious leaders to have sole care. "Legally, he is the one with custody," Mr Moghabghab said. "He took religious control.
"He is willing for her to see the children at any time. But he is not willing to allow her to take the children to Australia or elsewhere on holidays.
"If she takes the children to Australia who will say she will keep them and not bring them back to Lebanon." He said her condition was not good and she was suffering from depression.Mr Moghabghab said Ms Faulkner's legal rights in Australia were totally irrelevant in Lebanon. He was hopeful that if a deal were finalised over the weekend it could be registered with the court on Monday and Ms Faulkner could see her children before flying home.