Cyprus arrests man in connection with alleged kidnapping of Israeli boy

NICOSIA (Reuters) – A man has been arrested in Cyprus in connection with the suspected kidnapping of an Israeli youth who was the sole survivor of a cable car disaster in Italy in May, police said, after authorities Italian authorities issued an international arrest warrant against him.

Italian prosecutors believe Gabriel Abutbul Alon helped the grandfather of six-year-old Eitan Biran bring the boy back to Israel in September without the consent of the paternal aunt with whom he was living.

The boy's parents, younger brother and 11 others died in the cable car accident in northern Italy.

Alon and Eitan's grandfather, Shmuel Peleg, are accused of driving the boy from Italy to Switzerland, where they chartered a private jet to Israel.

“The arrest took place yesterday in Limassol… on an Interpol warrant,” a Cypriot police source said.

Alon was taken to a district court on Friday, which said it would decide Monday whether to keep him in custody. Alon's lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment on the case.

Shmuel Peleg's decision to take the boy to Israel sparked a cross-border custody battle between him and his paternal aunt.

An Israeli court granted a request to return him to Italy, but its highest court has stayed proceedings while it considers a request to appeal the decision.

The prosecutor's office in the Italian city of Pavia was not immediately available for comment.

(Reporting by Michele Kambas, additional reporting and writing by Angelo Amante in Rome, editing by William Maclean)