A document that appears to show a direct payment of $A69,000 from the Nine Network to the company engaged to snatch two Australian children from their Lebanese father has been released to AAP by a Beirut lawyer.
Dated January 22, 2016, the "payment detail report" generated by ANZ bank notes the fee drawn from the network's account is for "investigation into my missing child."
If genuine, the document verifies claims by the head of the child recovery team, Adam Whittington, that he was paid directly by Nine to come to Beirut and take the children of Australian mother Sally Faulkner from their Lebanese father.
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"This is the first instalment of two payments that were given to my client by Channel 9," lawyer Joe Karam told AAP.
Nine has refused to comment on claims it paid the child recovery company CARI directly and has since launched an internal investigation into the story and the legal mess four of its staff are facing.
Ms Faulkner and the 60 Minutes team, including journalist Tara Brown, were arrested soon after the botched recovery operation and spent nearly two weeks in jail before being released on bail on Wednesday after intensive legal negotiations.
The 60 Minutes team flew out of Lebanon soon after, but Ms Faulkner remains in the country, desperate to see her children, Lahela, 5 and Noah, 3, before she returns to Australia.
As part of the deal to convince her estranged husband Ali Elamine to drop the charges against her and the Australian journalists, Faulkner gave up custody of her children and will be only allowed to see them in Lebanon or a third country, not in Australia.
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