The three suspects in the cable-car crash in Northern Italy that killed 14 people were released from prison early Sunday after a judge partially rejected the preliminary conclusions of the investigators.
The Stresa-Mottarone cable car would take tourists and locals from the town on Lake Maggiore, almost 1,400 meters above sea level, to the top of Mottarone Mountain in 20 minutes. On May 23, some 14 people, including five Israelis, died when the gondola plunged to the ground after the pulling cable broke.
The only survivor, five-year-old Eitan Moshe Biran, is hospitalized in Turin and has started to ask about his family, Italian media reported Saturday.
The three suspects are Luigi Nerini, 56, the owner of the company that operated the cable car (which belongs to local authorities); Gabriele Tadini, 63, the director of service; and engineer Enrico Perocchio, 51. They were arrested last Wednesday.
According to prosecutor Olimpia Bossi, the three suspects purposefully decided to deactivate the emergency brakes to hide some malfunctions in the structure that would have prevented it from operating.
If the emergency brakes had been functioning when the pulling cable broke, the mechanism would have prevented the gondola from sliding back at a high speed and crashing into the mountain.
Tadini confessed that he had deactivated the system and accused Nerini and Perocchio of supporting his decision.
“I would have never have thought that the pulling cable could break,” he said during the interrogation, according to the Italian daily Corriere della Sera.
Some workers reportedly accused Tadini of ordering them to deactivate the brakes, already starting from April 26, when cable-car service was renewed after the long COVID lockdown.
The other two suspects have denied the accusations. The judge who was in charge of confirming their arrest said there was a complete lack of evidence against them apart from Tadini’s claims, Italian media reported Sunday.
For this reason, Nerini and Perocchio were released. In addition, Tadini was released from jail to house arrest because, according to the magistrates, there is no concern he can flee or tamper with the evidence.
Meanwhile, political leaders from all of Italy’s major parties have expressed support for the proposal of EU Parliament member and former president Antonio Tajani to award the Italian Medal for Civil Honor to Amit Biran, who according to the doctors, saved the life of his son Eitan by holding him in a tight embrace as the gondola was falling, Italian daily La Repubblica reported.
“Hi auntie, my throat hurts. Where are mom and dad?” were the first words Eitan uttered as he fully woke up on Friday in Ospedale Regina Margherita, a children’s hospital in Turin, after several days of sedation, Italian media reported. His aunt, Aya Biran, who lives in Italy with her family, and other relatives from Israel never leave his bedside.
The Biran family lived in Pavia, a town some 35 km. south of Milan renowned for its university, which attracts many Israelis.
Amit Biran, 30, studied medicine there. He, his wife, Tal Peleg, 27, and two-year-old Tom were killed in the tragedy, together with Tal’s grandparents, the children’s great-grandparents, Barbara Cohen Konisky, 71, and Itshak Cohen, 82, who were visiting them from Israel.
On Friday, Pavia proclaimed a day of mourning to honor the Biran family.