For the case of the
kidnapping of little Eitan
, the only survivor
of the Mottarone tragedy
, the
Pavia Public Prosecutor's Office closed the investigation,
in view of the request for trial, against the grandfather of the maternal branch
Shmuel Peleg
and his alleged accomplice Gabriel Abutbul Alon, accused of aggravated kidnapping, abduction and detention of a minor abroad and embezzlement of passport.
As emerges from the notice of conclusion of the investigation, the position of grandmother Esther Cohen
was removed, probably due to a request for dismissal
.
As stated in the indictment, signed by the prosecutor Valentina De Stefano of the Public Prosecutor's Office led by Fabio Napoleone, Peleg and Abutbul on 11 September 2021 would have taken away the little boy, who was 6 years old, "taking him from the domicile established by the Italian judicial authority" , in Travacò Siccomario (Pavia), "removing him from the guardian" Aya Biran, paternal aunt, "appointed by decree of 26 May 2021" of the Turin judge.
And they would have done so with a "premeditated and organized plan" by depriving the minor of "personal freedom" and taking him to Israel, on a private flight from Lugano, "against the will of the person in charge of him".
Hence the accusation of aggravated kidnapping, because of a minor.
Peleg and Abutbul are also accused of abducting and detaining a minor abroad and of having appropriated the child's Israeli passport, "without returning it" to the guardian, that is, aunt Aya, "by the deadline" of 30 August 2021. , as the judge of Pavia had established.
Abutbul, a 50-year-old soldier from a contractor agency, Israeli and resident in Cyprus, allegedly chauffeured Peleg to help him in his plan.
He had been extradited to Italy in June in execution of a European arrest warrant.
He had been questioned by the investigating judge of Pavia, who had set him free with the prohibition of residence in Milan, Pavia and Varese, and so he had returned to Cyprus.
An international arrest warrant is still pending on Peleg, 59, who lives in Tel Aviv, and the Israeli authorities are unlikely to comply with the Italian extradition request.