EXCLUSIVE: Sally Faulkner says she would do it all again

Sally Faulkner put everything on the line to recover her children after her estranged husband Ali Elamine took them to Lebanon. An ill-fated abduction attempt left the Australian mum emotionally shattered and facing 20 years in a Lebanese jail and yet, she tells The Australian Women’s Weekly, she would do it all again.

In a candid, emotional and sometimes distressing interview, Sally reveals exclusive details about the inside story of her relationship with Ali Elamine, the events that drove her to go along with the recovery attempt, how, in the hours that followed the abduction, while she and her children waited in a Beirut safe house, she discovered that their son Noah had been circumcised without her knowledge or consent.

“That was a complete shock,” says Sally. “It was all I could do not to cry. How could Ali do that without letting me know, without discussing it. It was just another reason to detest the man who’d taken our children.”

Sally says her children longed to be reunited with her and their wishes were reason enough to go along with the recovery attempt. Desperate and running out of time, Sally believed she had been deceived by her former partner and therefore would do whatever she needed to to get her children back home.

“Would I do it again?” she asks. “Yes. Absolutely. I would do it again. With the greatest respect to Lebanon and its legal system, with the greatest respect to Ali and his family, I would do it again if it meant that I could have my children back with me. Any mother would do the same, I believe.”