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The lawyer for a New Zealander released from a Lebanese jail after helping a Canadian woman snatch her children back from her ex-husband says his client is expected to be home by the weekend.
Rob Latton is acting for David Pemberton, a former SAS soldier from Napier who had been in Beirut's Roumieh prison since December.
Pemberton, 40, and Australian Brian Corrigan, 38, were caught and jailed for their part in retrieving the two daughters of Melissa Hawach. She hired four men, all ex-soldiers from Australia and New Zealand, after her ex-husband, Lebanese-Australian Joseph Hawach, took their daughters to Lebanon without her permission.
Pemberton and Corrigan were caught by Lebanese police after they picked up the two girls and handed them over to their mother.
Mr Latton said Pemberton had never been charged with kidnapping, although a Lebanese judge had recommended it.
"That recommendation was overturned by... a Lebanese court, and they instead charged him with a lesser offence, obstructing the course of justice." He had been granted bail, but may have to return to face trial.
- NZPA
