BEIRUT: A lawyer for the mother-of-three held in a Lebanese jail over the alleged kidnapping of her own children intends to seek her release from jail as early as Monday, despite custody negotiations breaking down with her ex-husband.

Sally Faulkner remains detained in a Beirut prison along with four members of Channel Nine's 60 Minutes program, including reporter Tara Brown, after a botched attempt to snatch her children from their father's family on a Lebanese street.

A judge last week ordered Ms Faulkner to negotiate with her estranged husband, Ali Elamine, in the hope the pair could come to an agreement over the custody of Lahala, 6, and Noah, 4. Ms Faulkner claims Mr Elamine failed to return the children to Australia after a three-week holiday.

Ms Faulkner's lawyer Ghassan Moughabghab visited his client over the weekend and revealed those talks had failed to reach an amicable solution.

"It seems Mr Elamine is not interested in a settlement," he said. "Maybe he wants to savour his joy at her predicament a bit longer."

But Mr Moughabghab told Fairfax Media on Sunday he intended to file for Ms Faulkner's release on Monday, when some of those incarcerated were due to reappear before Judge Rami Adbullah.

He said Ms Faulkner fears her ex-husband would be "upset" if her lawyer sought her release with no successful negotiation over their children's custody having taken place.

Brown and her crew Benjamin Williamson, David Ballment and Stephen Rice, face charges of kidnapping, as do the members of a "child recovery team", including Britain's Adam Whittington. All seven individuals arrested over the incident will be hoping high-level diplomatic talks will have helped smooth a path towards their own release.

Ten women in each cell

Fairfax Media visited Women's Central Jail in Baabda, Beirut, where Brown is incarcerated.

It's understood she and fellow female prisoners, including Ms Faulkner, are allowed two hours in the sunlight and exercise each day on the roof, with up to 10 women in each cell measuring roughly three by five metres.

Each prisoner is allocated a small closet in their rooms, which are filled with bunk beds. Food, including tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber, rice, potatoes and fruits, is brought to prison each Monday and the prisoners cook for themselves. Bananas are not permitted because the prison has previously caught them being used to smuggle in drugs.

Hygiene products like shampoo and conditioner are only allowed in transparent bottles. Visitors are allowed to visit and bring food but not milk. Deodorants are also forbidden.

The jail can fit 100 women but on the weekend its population totalled 72 prisoners, after one woman convicted of murder was released on Sunday after serving 11 years.

'Pelting them with her handbag'

A shopkeeper opposite the site of the abduction, which took place on St Teresa Street in the Hezbollah district of Hadath, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, said her son saw the entire drama play out.

"He said he saw people grabbing the children into a van, and the grandmother running after them pelting them with her handbag," she said.

He said the doors to the van closed and they left. The street is a busy shopping strip covered with CCTV cameras. Locals say Hezbollah keeps close tabs on everyone coming in and out of the area, meaning the abduction was particularly audacious given the location.

Earlier on Sunday, Brown's Channel Nine colleague and Today host Karl Stefanovic came to her defence, saying had been trying to explain to his daughter about "a friend who's been locked up in Lebanon". His daughter, he says, "liked to ask questions".

"So does Tara Brown," he said.

"Journalism - by definition is the work of collecting, writing and publishing news stories and articles. Who, what, when, where, why are the cornerstones of journalism," he continued in the statement. "It's brilliant in its simplicity and it's so easy to remember. Armed with those tools we go out into the wide world and ask away. At its most basic, we inform. At its best, it's powerful. We can expose the wrongs. We can make a difference. It all though starts with a question."

On Sunday night, 60 Minutes said the crew was in good spirits and the Nine Network is "working relentlessly to bring them home".

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