Eitan Biran, an Israeli child who was the sole survivor of the cable-car crash in Italy in May, was allegedly abducted on Saturday by his grandfather and taken back to Israel, N12 reported.
Eitan’s maternal grandfather, Shmulik Peleg, reportedly came to see him for a brief visit and was supposed to return him to his family at 6:30 p.m. He did not do so, however, and severed all contact with them, except for a text message stating that “Eitan is back home,” according to Italian news site La Repubblica.
It is alleged that the kidnapping was meant to return the boy to Israel in violation of both the will of his legal guardians and Italian law, N12 reported, citing Amos Dor, a Chabad shaliach (emissary) in Italy and a close friend of the family.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said it was “verifying the information,” but the boy has since arrived in Israel, Milan Jewish community leader Milo Hasbani told La Repubblica.
A lawyer for the boy’s family in Israel confirmed that the family had brought him back, and friends said the family was in possession of Eitan’s passport despite the judge having ordered them to return it to his legal guardians in Italy, La Repubblica reported.
“We are upset and incredulous that they have gone this far,” Armando Sibari, the lawyer for the Italian side of Eitan’s family, told La Repubblica.
“This is a very serious act that will be investigated,” he said. “Already in August, there was a strong stance against the Italian state and against Eitan’s paternal aunt, to which we had responded with a message of great openness to the whole family for the well-being of the child. So we are all the more shocked by what happened.”
Eitan was going through therapy in Italy, Sibari said, and “was literally torn away with an international kidnapping from the family that had been identified by the tutelary judge as the most suitable for him to grow up with because it was the one he had always seen daily. We are very worried about the trauma that this act risks causing him.”
Eitan’s aunt filed a police report, accusing the grandfather of kidnapping, and a file was opened a few hours later at the prosecutor’s office, La Repubblica reported.
EITAN, THEN five years old, had lost his parents, brother and a set of great-grandparents in the incident. He was initially in critical condition after the accident, before he was stabilized and eventually released from the hospital in June. He is said to have suffered severe psychological trauma from the incident.
The boy had been placed in the care of his paternal aunt Aya, who lives in Pavia with her husband and two daughters. Pavia, 35 km. south of Milan, is renowned for its university, which attracts many Israelis.
However, a custody battle between family members in Italy and Israel had been raging over Eitan, who is now six. In mid-August, his Israeli family accused Aya and the Italian relatives of abducting him.
Gali Peleg, a maternal aunt, wanted to return him to Israel, saying she feared his Jewish identity would erode in Italy, Ynet reported, citing the UK newspaper The Times.
Eitan did not belong with the Italian family, “who does not know him, and was previously not close to him in any way,” Peleg said, adding that he was being held hostage by them, according to ANSA.
According to the report, Peleg accused Aya of refusing to let Israeli relatives see Eitan outside of some brief periods, claiming they did not treat him well. Aya denied the allegations.
Gali Peleg on Sunday denied the abduction reports.
“We have not kidnapped Eitan, and we refuse to use that word,” she told 103FM.
“We brought Eitan home, but we were forced to do so due to not knowing anything about his medical and mental condition... We would not have seen him if the judge had not scheduled meetings,” she added.
When asked about Eitan’s return to Israel, Peleg said it is “what his parents would have wanted.”
“He was not in a healthy mental condition when we visited him,” she said. “He asked us if he did something wrong because we would come for such a short period of time.”
Eitan was enrolled at l’istituto delle Canossiane, a Catholic school run by nuns in the city of Fabia, where his cousins are also enrolled and where he would have started first grade on Monday, Italian daily La Stampa reported last month.
This is a developing story.
Rossella Tercatin and Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.