Share
04 December 2021 Eitan spent his first day in Italy after three months in Israel, returning last night to the house of his paternal uncles in Travacò Siccomario, in the Pavia area. He was absent since last September 11: the day on which his maternal grandfather Shmuel Peleg - under investigation for kidnapping by the Pavia prosecutor and on which an international arrest warrant hangs - had taken him by plane to Israel. From the lawyers of the paternal family the invitation to "turn off the spotlight and respect privacy to help Eitan recover serenity".
Eitan's first day in Italy
This morning when Eitan Biran, 6 years old, woke up, the only survivor of the tragedy of the Mottarone cable car - in which he lost his parents, his 2-year-old brother and his great-grandparents - he also found his beloved cat Oliver, his uncles Or, to celebrate. Nirko and Aya Biran, her court-appointed guardian.
The mayor: "Happy that the child is back home, his life is here"
An absolute tranquility reigned around the house that no inhabitant of the small town of Travacò Siccomario allowed himself to break: "We are happy that the child has returned home, his life is here", the comment of Domizia Clensi, mayor of the municipality where the paternal family resides: "But we will not have a public party for him: we must respect the family's will to live such a delicate moment in maximum privacy and tranquility".
Legal: "Now let's turn off the spotlight"
This request was also firmly reiterated by the lawyers Grazia Cesaro and Laura Pagni, lawyers of the Biran family: "We hope that the spotlight on the child's private life will be turned off in order to protect privacy and confidentiality, and that he will be allowed a path of growth serene, even more necessary considering the terrible tragedy that involved him ".
The return journey from Israel
Little Eitan was tired from the trip, but "very serene and happy to be back home" and Aya Aya was "happy" about returning home. This is how the agents of the mobile squad who accompanied them from the Orio al Serio airport to the villa on the outskirts of Pavia describe the journey. As soon as he left Bergamo, after expressing his happiness, the little boy fell asleep and woke up only upon arrival.
Eitan was accompanied into the house in his arms by Deputy Inspector Andrea Lenoci: "He was happy," he said. And Aunt Aya, before entering, hugged the agents. Then the gate closed and the child was able to hug his paternal grandparents, who had been waiting for his return for 84 days. Yesterday, after greeting his maternal grandparents Schmuel Peleg and Esther Cohen, under investigation in Pavia for his kidnapping, Eitan embarked for Italy. The flight on which he was traveling with his family took off shortly after 7pm (local time, 6pm in Italy) from Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport. Upon arrival at Orio al Serio airport, around 10 pm yesterday, there were journalists and cameras waiting for him. The flying squad cars waited for Eitan's family on the track and left for Pavia.
Happiness and emotion for what seems to be the end of the ordeal for the 6-year-old boy who found himself in the midst of a bitter family dispute on the part of father and mother and living in a country he had left when he was little more than a year and where he then spent the holidays.
Now Eitan will be able to return "to his routine, to all his medical, therapeutic and educational contexts, to his friends from the neighborhood and to the school, to the community he grew up in, and to his beloved cat Oliver," said a spokesperson for the Biran family. The neighbors, the shopkeepers of the town and the authorities are also ready to fight to guarantee the child a remnant of serenity. "We are happy with the epilogue, happy that Eitan is returning to Italy as we think he should be, but we will be even happier when we see him playing hopping with and like all the other children", say Pino Ciurleo and Elena Milanesi, owners of the dry cleaners and tailors. right in front of the paternal uncles' house. For Eitan to find a smile again, however, Aunt Aya asked above all for discretion and respect.There will be no party in town for Eitan's arrival. The embrace of Travacò "affectionate and from the heart" for the moment "will be virtual, not of presence", explains Domizia Clensi. "I hope Eitan can go back to his uncles' house, go in and out without having everyone's eyes on him because he was so much the center of attention. Maybe a little too much for such a small child."
A thought also shared by the mayor of Pavia, Fabrizio Fracassi, who immediately mobilized for Eitan after the collapse of the cable car, even with a fundraiser, and who has always been alongside his aunt Aya. "She's the real heroine of this whole thing," he says. "Eitan is as if he were my son. Now he needs a lot of love, warmth and above all tranquility. He needs to be treated well", continues Fracassi, who asks everyone to turn off the spotlight on Eitan, to allow him to resume his life of child at the point where - two days before starting school - it was interrupted. She will soon return to class, at the Maddalena di Canossa Institute in Pavia, where her cousins are also enrolled.His companions are waiting for him and he will finally be able to show off that backpack - colorful and with wheels - that he had chosen in the stationery near his home, a few days before the kidnapping.