6-year-old cable car survivor to return to Italy

Eitan Biran, the 6-year-old sole survivor of a cable car crash that killed both of his parents, will travel back to Italy with his paternal aunt, Israel's Supreme Court confirmed on Monday.

He is set to return to the northern city of Pavia within two weeks.

The orphaned boy found himself in the center of an international custody battle between his Israeli and Italian relatives following the disaster on May 23.

A lawyer of Eitan's aunt Aya Biran-Nirko praised court's the decision. He described it as an "end of an unfortunate episode" which was damaging to the child.

But the maternal side of the boy's family said they would continue to fight "in every legal way" to bring the boy back to Israel.

What is the case about?

Eitan was born in Israel to an Israeli mother and an Italian father. He is a dual national of both countries. However, his parents decided to move to Italy soon after the child's birth to study and work.

In May this year, Eitan's parent boarded a cable car in the Italian Alps with Eitan and his younger brother. Two of his great-grandparents and nine other people were also on board. The journey ended in tragedy when a cable snapped and an emergency brake failed to activate, killing everyone except the 6-year-old.

Court officials in Italy appointed his paternal aunt as his legal guardian and ruled the child would continue to live in Pavia. But in September, Eitan's maternal grandfather Shmulik Peleg came to visit Eitan and took him away without his aunt's permission, driving the child to Switzerland and then using a private plane to transport him to Israel.

What was the fallout?

The case grabbed headlines in both Israel and Italy. An Italian court issued an arrest warrant for Peleg, and an alleged accomplice of his was detained in Cyprus earlier this week on kidnapping charges. An Israeli court also accepted the aunt's claims that Peleg's actions amounted to kidnapping.

But Peleg has insisted he had acted in the child's best interest, claiming that Eitan's parents wanted to move back to Israel and that Eitan should therefore grow up in his country of birth.

Despite multiple judges rejecting this stance, the Peleg family took the battle to the Israeli Supreme Court. With the court ordering the boy's return to Italy on Monday, they are planning to dispute the aunt's custody before a Milan court later this week.

dj/nm (dpa, Reuters, AFP, AP)