The grandfather of an Israeli boy who was the sole survivor of a cable car accident in Italy was questioned by police on Tuesday after being accused of kidnapping his grandson from an aunt in Italy and taking him to Israel.
Prosecutors in the northern Italian city of Pavia said Monday they demanded the return of 6-year-old Eitan Biran to Italy in accordance with the Hague Convention on the Rights of the Child, accusing Shmuel Aggravated kidnapping fight.
A carefully worded statement from police in Israel did not name Peleg or directly accuse him of kidnapping, but said a 58-year-old man from Petah Tikva had been questioned in relation to a six-year-old boy he was carrying from Israel. in Italy, following a complaint for the alleged abduction of a minor.
“At the end of his interrogation, the suspect received parole. The investigation continues,” the police statement said.
The Peleg family said in a statement that the grandfather was cooperating with investigators after Biran was brought to Israel “according to his parents’ wishes” and denied that anything illegal had happened. Peleg said he held legal consultations before firing Biran out of Italy, Kan reported.
Biran has become the subject of an increasingly bitter custody battle after his parents, younger brother and two great-grandparents were killed when a cable crashed into the tram carrying visitors over the weekend. at the top of Mount Mottarone in the Piedmont region on 24 May. of 14 people died, with Biran, who was hospitalized for weeks, the only survivor.
A view shows a journalist working next to the remains of a cable car covered with a tarpaulin, on May 26, 2021, at the foot of Mottarone Peak over Stresa, Piedmont, three days after an accident that kill 14 people. (Miguel Medina / AFP)
Her paternal aunt, Aya Biran-Nirko, an Israeli doctor in Italy, has been caring for her ever since, but last month Biran’s relatives, along with her mother, publicly accused Biran-Nirko of kidnapping. the child and announced that they would seek legal help. in having him brought to Israel.
Biran-Nirko told Italian media that when Peleg had come to pick up the boy for a arranged visit on Saturday morning, it was agreed that the boy would return to dinner. But when Eitan did not return, the aunt filed a police report Saturday night, Italian news reported.
The Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera reported that Peleg was driving with Biran from Italy to the Swiss city of Lugano, apparently after leaving the country with his grandson’s Israeli passport. From Switzerland, they traveled by private plane to Israel, according to the newspaper.
People stand in front of a kiosk showing a daily headline in Italian “Mottarone, tragedy with 14 dead” in Stresa, northern Italy, on Monday, May 24, 2021. (AP / Antonio Calanni)
According to the newspaper, Biran’s grandmother and Peleg’s ex-wife, Esther Cohen, also want to be questioned on suspicion that she played a role in bringing Biran to Israel.
Or Nirko, Eitan Biran’s uncle, told the newspaper that the maternal part of the family had refused to hand over the child’s Israeli passport, despite an Italian court order.
The Peleg family said Sunday that Biran was undergoing “intense” treatment at Sheba Medical Center outside Tel Aviv.
“He wasn’t kidnapped or anything like that,” the family said. “She is now in the arms of an affectionate and warm family as she should be.”
However, Nirko said a relative had gone to the hospital to look for Biran but had not been able to locate him.
Illustrative: Italian police officers stand guard at the Porta Garibaldi train station in Milan, Italy, on September 2, 2021. (Luca Bruno / AP)
“The Peleg family keeps Eitan as if captured by Hamas,” he accused, according to Italian media.
Although Eitan was raised in Italy, Peleg’s son-in-law, Ron Peri, claimed in August that the boy’s Israeli parents had not wanted him to grow up there and would have preferred him to receive a Jewish education in Israel.
In June, Marcella Severino, the mayor of the city of Stresa, where the cable car began, told an Italian newspaper that Biran-Nirko was “a constant presence in the child’s life. It’s in good hands. “
Eitan suffered severe trauma in the crash and Biran-Nirko took on the task of dealing with the hospital system and its recovery, although Peri said the deal had to be temporary.