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A Kiwi mercenary who languished in a Lebanese jail after rescuing two children kidnapped by their father has been labelled a "gift from God" by their mother.
Former Kiwi soldier David Pemberton was one of two men to snatch Hannah and Cedar Hawach from Lebanon in December 2006, where they were taken by their Australian-Lebanese father, Joseph Hawach.
In her new book, Flight of the Dragon Fly, Melissa Hawach reveals how Pemberton and Brian Corrigan put themselves at great risk to help her.
She describes how the men approached her daughters, then aged 3 and 5, as they played outside a resort where they were staying with their father.
Hawach called the girls to her and carried them to a waiting car. The group fled, with Hawach and the two girls crouching in the back seat to avoid being seen.
Hawach returned to Canada but Lebanese police arrested Pemberton and Corrigan as they boarded a plane to Sydney. They went to jail for three months, and faced a 15-year jail term.
Pemberton was released after his family paid the US$3500 ($4435) bail.
In an extract printed in Sydney's Daily Telegraph, Melissa says Pemberton and Corrigan suffered terribly for their role "and I dearly wish it otherwise... Till the day I die, I will be beholden to those two fathers who acted out of a father's instinct and no other".
Pemberton went to work as a bodyguard in Iraq in 2004. Before the events in Lebanon, he said he planned to return home to Napier to be with his four children.
Last night he refused to comment.
