THE mother in a custody dispute stretching from Canada to Lebanon via Australia has revealed how emails from an Australian aid worker and a German tourist alerted her to the whereabouts of her daughters.

Melissa Hawach said they had seen Hannah, 6, and Cedar, 3, at her estranged husband Joseph’s villa north of Beirut after being sent an email of their photographs from friends in Canada who knew they were about to travel to Lebanon.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph last night, Ms Hawach revealed how she found her children and retrieved them. After seven weeks in hiding in Lebanon, they returned to Canada last week.

Lawyer Chris Jurd said the parents of Mr Hawach were relieved to learn that their grandchildren were safe.

“The footage in the media is the first time any of the family in Australia have seen the kids since July last year,” he said. “The family remains very, very concerned for the welfare of the kids.”

Ms Hawach paid tribute to the former Australian and New Zealand special forces soldiers — David Pemberton and Brian Corrigan — who helped with theLebanese operation and will continue to fight for their release from prison.

She said she couldn’t have cared less about the prospect of going to jail for snatching her children.

She revealed that she had cut and dyed her blonde hair black and kept her daughters in hiding in Lebanon for seven weeks before smuggling them out of thecountry last week.

Canadian-born Ms Hawach and Mr Hawach married in Sydney. The couple separated in Canada in 2005.

In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Ms Hawach said her greatest fear was losing her children.

“I was never worried about the courts, I was never worried about being arrested,” she said.

“I couldn’t have cared less if I was thrown in jail. But I knew that if I was caught, my children would get turned back over, I wouldn’t know where they would go and I would never see them again. My greatest fear was losing them again.”