The wife of the Australian-British man imprisoned in Lebanon following a botched kidnapping says 60 Minutes has “mistreated” and “let down” her husband.

Speaking to Network Ten’s The Project, Karin Whittington, the wife of Child Abduction Recovery International founder Adam Whittington, said her husband had been left to suffer in jail while the 60 Minutes crew and Sally Faulkner went free.

“[For] the management of the [60 Minutes] team just to dismiss everything and say they have no responsibility [for Mr Whittington], it is not very moral in my eyes,” Ms Whittington said.

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“They should have the decency at least to see how I am. The TV crew was sitting in the same cell as my husband for two weeks.

“Wouldn’t a phone call saying ‘he is OK, he misses you and I hope he will be OK’. Something? Some apologies?

“Not just, ‘We don’t have any responsibility. We haven’t paid anyone’. It is not the right thing to do. I think the truth will come out, though. That is what I think.”

Mr Whittington led a 60 Minutes crew on a child abduction attempt in Beirut, Lebanon in early April.

Along with the crew and the children’s mother Ms Faulkner, Mr Whittington and three other men helping him were charged over the incident and detained in jail.

Ms Whittington criticised the Nine Network. Photo: Twitter/The Project

After two weeks together in prison the 60 Minutes crew and Ms Faulkner struck a deal with the children’s father, Ali al-Amin, to drop the charges and secure their release.

No deal was struck for Mr Whittington and his crew. Reports claimed the Nine Network paid Mr al-Amin for the release but this was denied by both parties.

Mr Whittington and his crew face charges of hiding information, forming an association with two or more people to commit a crime against a person, kidnapping and physical assaults.

Mr Whittington’s three young sons miss their father, but did not know that he was in jail, Ms Whittington said.

She revealed she has only spoken to her husband once since he was arrested – for “30 or 40 seconds” the day after the 60 Minutes crew and Ms Faulkner were released.

Mr Whittington was also able to send his wife a letter from jail.

UK and Aus governments slammed

Mr Whittington is a dual Australian and British citizen, and Ms Whittington claimed both governments had been poor in their efforts for her husband.

“Nothing from the Australian government,” she said. “I have been in contact with consular officials from the British Embassy maybe twice. I am very disappointed in how the Australian government has dealt with all of this.”

Mr Whittington has only spoken to his wife once since being jailed. Photo: YouTube

Ms Whittington made it clear her husband was not disappointed in the crew he shared jail time with, but with 60 Minutes and Nine Network’s management.

Ms Whittington continued to berate the 60 Minutes management, even when The Project host Waleed Aly explained there were possibly differing levels of involvement in the incident.

“Do you understand there might be different treatment because there is different involvement?” Aly said.

“In this particular case we are talking about people who have alleged to have done the act themselves, rather than a crew that were there to film it.”

Ms Whittington responded: “But none of this would have happened if the mum [Ms Faulkner] didn’t order this. So it is one person ordering, one paying for it and one assisting.”

Click here to read the Nine Network and the Australian Government’s response to Ms Whittington’s claims. 

Watch the full interview below:

We spoke exclusively to the wife of Adam Whittington, Karin, about her husband’s situation #TheProjectTV https://t.co/jlzI2Gbqrn

— #TheProjectTV (@theprojecttv) April 27, 2016