Australian mother held in Lebanon with 60 Minutes crew has three-month-old baby in Australia

The Australian mother detained with a 60 Minutes TV crew in Lebanon after a bungled child snatch attempt has a three-month-old baby in Brisbane.

The revelation comes as Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop said her department was trying to ascertain the "alleged involvement" of the crew.

"There is a compassionate element to this case, because of course it involves children," Ms Bishop said on Saturday.

"We are providing as much support as we can, meeting with officials within the Lebanese government and doing what we can to ascertain what is proposed, in relation to the crew and the alleged involvement of the crew in this case."

Prominent figures from the NSW Lebanese community also said they were lobbying for the release of Brisbane mother Sally Faulkner and the television crew, which includes reporter Tara Brown.

Ms Faulkner left the baby she had this year with her new husband, Brendan Pierce, to travel to Lebanon to recover two children from a previous marriage.

She has alleged the children, Lahela, 6, and Noah, 4, were being kept illegally in Lebanon by her former husband, Ali Elamine.

​Mr Elamine denies the claim and said Ms Faulkner had agreed to the children going to Lebanon.

60 Minutes travelled to Lebanon to film Ms Faulkner's attempt to take the children using a controversial child recovery agency.

But the attempt backfired when the child recovery agents were arrested shortly after they snatched the children from their paternal grandmother at a Beirut bus stop.

They managed to hand over the children to Ms Faulkner but were then arrested. The 60 Minutes crew were also arrested and are facing allegations that the program paid more than $100,000 to the child recovery agency to facilitate the recovery.

60 Minutes did not respond to Fairfax Media's request for comment but is reported to have denied the claims, which have allegedly been made in a signed statement given to authorities by one of the detained child recovery agency employees.

Fairfax Media understands there is documentary evidence of the payments, which were to be made in instalments to the agency.

Ms Faulkner has vigorously denied being involved in hiring the child recovery agents or paying them. Her legal team is believed to be arguing that a mother can't kidnap her own children.

She was arrested 24 hours after the snatch, while another employee of the child recovery agency was arrested on a yacht moored off the coast. Mr Pierce declined to comment due to the sensitivity of the situation.

He is understood to be closely liaising with 60 Minutes and a legal team.

On Saturday, Sydney doctor and Muslim leader Jamal Rifi confirmed he had interceded.

Dr Rifi, whose brother Ashraf Rifi was until recently the Lebanese justice minister, said he had taken the initiative to call contacts within the justice authorities.

"My only involvement is to make sure the Australian people are being looked after in a humane way," he said.

Australian and Lebanese authorities had an "extremely professional, amicable and friendly relationship" and the detainees were being treated well, Dr Rifi said. But he said many people in Lebanon had at first interpreted the abduction as a violation of their sovereignty.

"I believe that the Lebanese public have sympathy towards the mother but they are angry towards the methods used," Dr Rifi said.

He had thought the detainees might be granted bail on Friday but said shortened public holiday hours meant the case was set over.

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was in close contact with the Australians.

"Officials of the Australian Embassy in Beirut are continuing to visit the Australians in detention to confirm their welfare and are providing consular assistance," a spokesman said.

The ABC has reported Ms Faulkner had been shackled to Ms Brown during their detention in a Beirut police station.

Their release could be complicated by the political connections of Mr Elamine, whose mother is the cousin of the Speaker of Lebanon's Parliament Nabih Berri, the ABC has reported.

He is also head of the Amal movement, with access to major security resources, said the report.