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SYDNEY - Former New Zealand soldier David Pemberton has been charged over his alleged involvement in the mercenary retrieval of two girls from their Lebanese-Australian father in Beirut.
David Pemberton and Brian Corrigan, his Australian co-accused, have been charged with child abduction and being accessories to child abduction, Fairfax newspapers report.
The men face three years hard labour if convicted of involvement in a five-man mercenary squad hired by Melissa Hawach, a 32-year-old Canadian, to snatch her daughters back from their father Joseph.
Her estranged Australian husband, who also has Lebanese citizenship, took Hannah, five, and Cedar, three, to Lebanon in July, and cut contact with his ex-wife soon after.
Corrigan and Pemberton were arrested on a plane at Beirut's airport. Corrigan, a Wollongong father of one, has denied being involved in the operation for money or having knowingly broken the law.
They have been moved to a remand centre at Roumieh, east of Beirut, where they can be held for up to four months while inquiries continue.
- AAP
