KEY POINTS:
The Kiwi former soldier imprisoned in Lebanon for his part in kidnapping two children had just told friends he wanted to quit life as a soldier of fortune and come home for Christmas.
Last night the family of Dave Pemberton, who served in the New Zealand Army for 20 years, defended his actions in a bizarre international custody dispute, claiming he would never have taken a job that was morally wrong.
Pemberton was dragged from a plane at Beirut's international airport on Wednesday just minutes before making his escape from Lebanon.
A former soldier in the Australian Army, Brian Corrigan, 38, was also taken from the plane and arrested.
The pair could face up to 15 years in jail on charges of kidnapping minors over their alleged involvement in a so-called mercenary squad hired by Canadian woman Melissa Hawach to retrieve daughters Cedar Hawach, 3, and Hannah Hawach, 5, who were at the centre of a custody dispute.
Two other New Zealanders and former NZ Army soldiers - Mike Rewi, 40, and Simon Dunn, 33 - managed to evade Lebanese authorities, as did another Australian, James Arak. The men are now on the run, as is Melissa Hawach and her daughters, who were snatched from their Lebanese-Australian father Joseph Hawach on Wednesday.
John Pemberton told the Herald on Sunday last night that the family had no knowledge of the job that had taken his brother Dave to Lebanon.
"Obviously we're concerned. We have to take each step as it comes. You don't know how to react or how you're going to react."
He said his brother had a strong moral code - backed up by a clean service sheet after 20 years in the New Zealand Army.
Dave Pemberton left the Army in 2004 to work as a bodyguard in Iraq.
"There was never any doubt that, whatever the situation is, he wouldn't be kidnapping anybody per se," John Pemberton said. "There would have to be a very strong moral leg to stand on before he got involved."
John Pemberton said his brother was not a mercenary and his actions were probably justified.
"It all depends on what side of the fence you're sitting on.
"It's a matter of borders - if you're in Lebanon it's kidnapping. Anywhere else it's a rescue."
A spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said last night that charges were likely to be laid in the next few days in relation to the Kiwi's suspected involvement in the kidnapping of the girls.
Last night, as news of the military-style operation broke, a friend of Melissa Hawach gave a dramatic account of how the operation unfolded.
It was the latest step in the fraught custody dispute, which followed international arrest and extradition warrants issued for Joseph Hawach, 31, after he disappeared from Australia with his daughters.
Joseph and Melissa Hawach separated two years ago after marrying in Sydney in 1999.
Joseph Hawach is alleged to have fled to Lebanon after a custody visit with his daughters, arriving at the height of the Hezbollah-Israel war in July and August.
Rhonda Morgan, executive director of the Missing Children's Society of Canada, which has worked closely with Melissa Hawach, told how the distraught mother set in train a plan to get her daughters.
Morgan also said she believed no mercenaries were involved in actually taking the girls - although a team of men was travelling with Melissa Hawach to carry out surveillance.
She said Melissa and her father Jim Engdahl flew from Australia to Lebanon this month to try to retrieve her children through the Lebanese courts. "She did not go with the intention of abducting her children."
An investigator for the society joined the pair shortly afterwards. They all stayed in the same Jounieh resort as the father and daughters, without the father knowing. It has been reported that the hotel was the al-Rimal Hotel.
Morgan said "a team" engaged after the girls went missing had tracked the daughters and Joseph Hawach to the resort. Fearing the three would vanish again, Melissa set the team watching them while she approached the courts.
Lebanese police told the Herald on Sunday that five men seized the girls and handed them to their mother - something Morgan denies, alleging that Melissa approached the girls at the hotel and called their names.
"They simply ran to her and she put them in the vehicle and they drove away," said Morgan. "No mercenaries were involved."
But Lebanese police say that when Pemberton and Corrigan were arrested, they gave information about the other three men. Police also found laptops, DVDs, air tickets, and receipts that suggested at least $40,000 had been spent on the operation.
Engineer Oiroa Kaihau, a fellow serviceman and close friend of Pemberton's, told the Herald on Sunday that his friend was planning to give up his career as a soldier-for-hire and come home to his family and settle down.
Kaihau served with Pemberton in the NZ Army for many years and was working as an NZDF engineer in Iraq when Pemberton was doing private bodyguard work there from January to July last year.
He said Pemberton - an electrical mechanical engineer - was a "nice guy" and had four children from his first marriage and his current long-term relationship with Dawn Fuller, in Hawke's Bay.
"Two weeks ago, he emailed to say what he'd been up to. He just outlined what he'd been up to overseas. He was hoping to come home and settle down. I emailed back, and wished him a happy Christmas."
Kaihau said Pemberton was working for a small, discreet company in Iraq, doing bodyguard work looking after visiting contractors.
Kaihau's wife Kirsty said Pemberton was "a lovely guy, a really nice guy. He would probably help anyone, which is what it sounds like he was doing."
Kaihau said Pemberton was well-respected and liked by colleagues.
"I had a lot of respect for him, I got on really well with him. He was easy going, easy to get along with and well-respected."
He would neither confirm nor deny that his friend was in the Army's special forces.
Pemberton served in the New Zealand Army from 1984 to 2004, initially in the Royal New Zealand Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, which in 1996 became the Royal New Zealand Army Logistic Regiment - known as the Duke of York's Own.
Simon Edwin Mason Dunn ascended to the rank of corporal during nine years' service, which ended in 2005. And Michael Douglas Rewi served from 1986 to 1996, earning the rank lance corporal.
A cousin of Rewi told the Herald on Sunday Rewi was a former member of the SAS who went into security contracting about a year and a half ago. He grew up in Whangarei and his iwi was Nga Puhi.
- HERALD ON SUNDAY
