ROME – Nearly three months after his grandfather took him to Israel in an international custody battle, the 6-year-old boy, the sole survivor of the Italian cable car crash, was scheduled to return to Italy on Friday. to the lawyer of one of the boy’s aunts.
The boy, Eitan Biran, survived a tragic cable car crash in May that killed 14 people, including his parents, and his return to Italy will end a months-long legal battle in Israel over custody of the boy, which will now resume in Italian courts.
The boy was in the spotlight for the second time in September when Shmuel Peleg, his grandfather, took him from the home of Aya Biran’s aunt in Italy, where he lived after the accident. what was supposed to be a toy shopping holiday.
But instead of bringing Eitan back for dinner, as promised, his grandfather drove the boy across the border to Switzerland and then took him back to Israel in a private jet.
In Israel, Mr Peleg was accused by Ms Biran of violating the Hague Convention, which concerns the return of abducted children to their country of residence, and last month the Israeli Supreme Court upheld an earlier court order that Eitan should be returned to country of residence. Italy, removing the last legal obstacle to his return.
As his return to Italy approached, lawyers warned the media to respect the child’s privacy. “Eitan now needs serenity and tranquility with his family to experience a delicate recovery,” lawyers for Ms. Biran, Eitan’s paternal aunt, said in a statement.
An Italian prosecutor has issued an international arrest warrant for Mr. Peleg. The prosecutor charged Mr. Peleg, his ex-wife and a man, with suspected complicity in the abduction.
Mr. Peleg will only be arrested if he leaves Israel because the country does not extradite its citizens until a final verdict is issued and the arrest warrant is not considered sufficient, said one of his lawyers, Paolo Sevesi.
Eitan was expected to return to Ms Biran’s home in northern Italy just in time to celebrate the last days of Hanukkah with his family there.
