THREE MEN ARRESTED as part of the investigation into Italy’s cable car disaster that killed 14 people have been released from custody.

They were allowed to leave prison today after a judge indicated most of the blame fell on a service technician who intentionally disabled the car’s emergency brake because it kept locking spontaneously.

Judge Donatella Banci Buonamici said there was not sufficient evidence. The judge  suggested the owner of the Mottarone cable car company, Luigi Nerini, or the maintenance chief, Enrico Perocchio, knew the technician had deactivated the brake on several occasions even before the 23 May disaster.

After evaluating the prosecutors’ case and their request for continued detention of the three, Judge Buonamici ordered Nerini and Perocchio freed while allowing the technician, Gabriele Tadini, to leave under house arrest.

The three men left the Verbania prison early on Sunday, accompanied by their lawyers.

Fourteen people were killed when the lead cable of the Mottarone funicular overlooking Lake Maggiore in northern Italy snapped and the emergency brake failed to prevent the cable car from reeling backward down the support line.

The cable car pulled off the line entirely when it hit a support pylon, crashed to the ground and then rolled down the mountain until it was stopped by a stand of trees.

The lone survivor, five-year-old Eitan Biran, remains in hospital but conscious.

It is not known why the cable snapped.

The Italian region of Piedmont observed a minute of silence at noon on Sunday and flags were flying at half-mast to mark the moment one week ago when the disaster struck.

Tadini admitted during questioning that he had left a fork-shaped bracket on the cable car’s emergency brake to disable it because it kept locking on its own while the car was in service, said his lawyer Marcello Perillo.

Speaking to reporters outside the Verbania prison, Mr Perillo said Tadini never would have left the bracket in place if he thought the lead cable would snap, as it did.