Eitan Biran, Lone Survivor of Italian Cable Car Crash, Is Subject of Custody Battle

The prosecutor did not respond to requests for comment and Mr Peleg was not immediately available for comment.

Mr Simbari, the aunt’s attorney, said Eitan had lived in Italy since he was one and had both Italian and Israeli citizenship. The boy’s native language is Italian, he said, although he also speaks Hebrew.

“We are very concerned that this child has been torn from its familiar surroundings. So it’s a second trauma after the one he experienced in May, ”said Simbari.

Ms. Biran, the aunt, told reporters on Sunday that Mr. Peleg picked up Eitan on Saturday morning for an arranged visit to buy toys. After the boy did not return home, she said she started calling Mr Peleg who did not answer. On Saturday night, she told reporters that she had received a text message from her grandfather that said, “Eitan has returned home.”

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This summer’s court ruling also ordered Mr. Peleg to return Eitan’s Israeli passport, but he did not. “I can assume that the grandfather was able to evade border controls with the passport and bring the boy back to Israel,” said Simbari.

The lawyers of Mr. Peleg – the father of Eitan’s mother, Tal Peleg – denied the kidnapping allegations and said in a statement that the boy was “never deprived of his personal liberty”. They alleged that Mr Peleg did not break a court order as he was never officially notified that the child could not leave the country.

“Eitan’s state of health worries the maternal family, who has always been kept in the dark by doctors and courts who have hindered maternal family participation,” the lawyers said in a statement. “For these reasons, his grandfather decided to subject him to the necessary medical examinations in Israel.”