Brisbane mother Sally Faulkner and the 60 Minutes crew charged over the alleged kidnapping of two children in Lebanon have been released from a Beirut prison after charges against them were dropped.

Faulkner and the four members of the Australian current affairs show were charged on April 12 with involvement in kidnapping after her two children were reportedly snatched off the street following a custody dispute with their Lebanese father.

The judge, Rami Abdallah, said father Ali Zeid al-Amin had dropped charges his estranged wife, 60 Minutes journalist Tara Brown and her crew Benjamin Williamson, David Ballment and Stephen Rice.

“I have agreed to release the Australian crew and the mother on bail after the children’s father and grandmother dropped the personal charges against all five of them,” Judge Abdallah told the court.

Amin confirmed he had dropped the charges against Faulkner and the crew from the Channel Nine’s program.

Outside court, Ms Faulkner’s Lebanese lawyer, Ghassan Moghabghab, said the Brisbane woman was feeling “happy and sad”.

“Sad because of her story and sad because she will — her children will stay with their father … taking into consideration the Lebanese law, he is in his rights.

“And happy that she was released, obviously.”

At the time of the kidnapping incident, Lebanese authorities said they had prevented the woman and the crew from taking Amin and Faulkner’s two children back to Australia.

CCTV footage broadcast on Lebanese television appeared to show several people grabbing the children, who the father said were aged five and three, from their grandmother and bundling them into a car.

Australia’s Channel Nine television network has said its crew was not connected to the people who grabbed the children, Australian media reported.

The mother was subsequently arrested and the children were returned to their father.

Lebanon, unlike Australia, is not a signatory to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, which allows for children normally resident in one location to be returned if taken by a relative.

– with other agencies