The Italian government is considering intervening in the alleged kidnapping case of little Eitan, the only survivor of the cable car accident on Lake Maggiore.
"We are currently evaluating the incident in order to be able to intervene," said Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio to journalists on Monday, as reported by the Ansa news agency.
Six-year-old Eitan was brought from Italy to Israel by plane from Italy to Israel on Saturday by the maternal grandfather without the knowledge of the guardian - the paternal aunt - and contrary to a court order.
The public prosecutor's office in the northern Italian city of Pavia is now investigating the grandfather for deprivation of liberty, as Ansa wrote. The man's lawyers said he acted in an affect. The Israeli had met the boy for a visit as agreed, but did not bring him back to his aunt that evening. Instead, according to media reports, he drove to Switzerland in a rental car and flew from Lugano to Israel on a private plane.
There Eitan will be examined in a hospital, said his grandmother Etti Peleg the radio station 103FM. The boy had survived the cable car disaster on Whitsunday, seriously injured, and his parents, brother and two great-grandparents died. Eitan had not seen a doctor other than his aunt on his father's side for four months, the grandmother claimed. Or Nirko, the aunt's husband in Pavia, spoke of “lying statements” by the family in Israel.
The aunt, who was appointed as guardian by a court after the accident, relies on an international agreement for Eitan's return, namely the Hague Child Abduction Convention, which both Israel and Italy have signed up to.
This is intended to protect children from kidnapping or deportation to other countries.
It also provides for children to be returned to the state where they are used to before as soon as possible.
Cristina Pagni, the aunt's lawyer, was already in court in Pavia on Monday.
"At the moment I can't say anything specific," she said after the appointment, according to Ansa.