Eitan: grandmother probed for kidnapping too

(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 14 - Etty Peleg, the maternal grandmother of Eitan Biran, the six-year-old Israeli boy who was the sole survivor of the Mottarone mountain cable-car disaster in Piedmont in May, has also been put under investigation for the boy's abduction at the weekend, sources said Tuesday.
    The boy's maternal grandfather, Peleg's ex-husband Shmuel Peleg, was already being probed in the northern city of Pavia for aggravated kidnapping.
    Eitan was reportedly was driven across the border to Switzerland and flown to Tel Aviv with a private jet after being taken out by his maternal grandfather on Saturday.
    Eitan's parents, great grandparents and two-year-old brother were among the 14 victims of the disaster.
    Eitan, who moved to Italy with his parents in 2018, had been put into the care of his Italian-based paternal aunt, Aya Biran, after the disaster by the Italian authorities.
    The boy's maternal family had said last month they would mount a legal challenge against this decision, saying the child was being held "hostage".
    On Monday one of Aya Biran's lawyers said that she as going to talk to a judge about appealing to the 1980 Hague Abduction Convention to bring he boy back to Italy.
    Israel ratified the convention in 1991.
    Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said on that the Italian government was looking into the case.
    The child's family in Israel told local media that he was being given "psychological and medical care" at a hospital on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.
    The boy's uncle on his father's side, Aya Biran's husband Or Nirko, said Tuesday that the maternal family were hiding Eitan, comparing the case to that of Israeli soldiers being held prisoner by Hamas.
    "The Peleg family have refused to say where the child is," Nirko said.
    "They are hiding him in a sort of hole".
    Nirko said his brother had checked whether Eitan was at Tel Aviv's Sheba hospital and had not found him there.
    When asked about the comments, legal sources form the maternal family said that Eitan "is well". (ANSA).