Italy: Judge Releases Three Held Over Cable Car Disaster, One in House Arrest

An Italian judge ruled late on Saturday that three men detained over a cable car crash that killed 14 people in northern Italy could leave prison, with one being placed under house arrest, Italian media reported.

The chief prosecutor of the city of Verbania, Olimpia Bossi, confirmed the judge’s ruling in comments made to reporters on RAI news channel.

Last Sunday the gondola on a cable way connecting the town of Stresa, on Lake Maggiore, to the nearby Mottarone mountain plunged to the ground, killing all aboard apart from a five-year-old Israeli boy who remains in hospital.

Italian prosecutors have opened an investigation into suspected involuntary manslaughter and negligence.

On Wednesday police arrested the three men.

According to the daily La Stampa website, the judge on Saturday ruled there were no grounds for keeping the three men in jail since they could not run away and there was no risk of evidence being tampered with.