The judge suggested the court should infer that the Tabbaa's “colluded” with their son Omar “for the purpose of attempting to extract a damages award from what they perceive to be a wealthy media defendant”. Mrs Tabbaa was ordered to pay Nine Network’s costs on an indemnity basis because the judge held she gave evidence that she knew to be false. Indemnity costs are higher than usual costs orders and awarded in circumstances such as when a judge determines that there has been an abuse of process. Nadia Tabbaa. Credit:Channel Nine When the unemployed couple, who receive government benefits, lodged appeals based on a number of points including that the trial judge was biased, the Nine Network requested that the court order them to pay $173,000 in security for costs before being allowed to proceed with their appeals.

“It is not disputed that Mr and Mrs Tabbaa are impecunious” and do not have the means to pay the current costs orders let alone “an adverse costs order if their appeals fail,” Court of Appeal judge Richard White held last week. Loading He noted that Channel Nine’s lawyers estimated that the network would be entitled to recover costs in excess of $1 million from the Tabbaas’ initial defamation loss. However, Justice White declined to make a security for costs order against the Tabbaas should their appeals be unsuccessful. The judge said that “however weak Mrs Tabbaa’s case might appear to be” it could not be said that the appeals could be “characterised as hopeless or unarguable”.

The 60 Minutes program, broadcast in 2014, detailed the Tabbaas’ daughter Nadia’s claims that in 2002 she was 13 years old when she was tricked into going overseas. She was eventually taken to Syria where she was held against her will by her father’s relatives and forced to marry a cousin 15 years her senior. She escaped on her 18th birthday with the assistance of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. During the court case Nadia Tabbaa testified that while living in Sydney from age eight to 13, she was regularly beaten with a belt and a kettle cord by her older brother Omar, who attempted to impose restrictions on her clothing and contact with friends. Pamela Tabbaa. Credit:AAP The jury found that Mr Tabbaa had been violent towards his own wife Pamela who had fled from Jordan to Australia with her five children. Other imputations that were found to be substantially true were that Mr Tabbaa not only “bashed, beat and terrorised his wife for 20 years” he also “permitted the beating of his daughter by his son [Omar]”.

The jury determined that Mrs Tabbaa assisted in the abduction of her daughter and conspired with her husband’s family to keep her daughter in Syria for years against her daughter’s will. Mrs Tabbaa had been supportive of her daughter’s interview with 60 Minutes, providing the program with photos and witnessing the exclusive agreement her daughter had signed with the current affairs program, the jury heard. In cross-examination of Nadia Tabbaa it was put to her that her mother’s signature had been forged. The trial judge noted that Nadia Tabbaa was at times “visibly distressed in the witness box” at having to relive her experiences. The judge accepted the submission that her distress at her original suffering at the hands of her mother was exacerbated by her mother’s attempt to “recover damages by denying what occurred.” “This couple, apparently driven together (the Court might infer) by pecuniary wants and the designs of their son Omar, have demonstrated that they are prepared to say whatever has to be said to get the result they need from the Courts,” said Justice Fagan.