German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier shakes hands with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj ahead of a meeting in New Delhi yesterday. Steinmeier is on a three-day visit to India.
Agencies/New Delhi
The government will not prevent an ailing Italian marine facing murder charges from returning home for medical treatment, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said yesterday.
Massimiliano Lattore is one of two Italian marines being held over the 2012 shooting of two fishermen mistakenly believed to be pirates, in a case that has soured relations between New Delhi and Rome.
Lattore, 47, suffered a stroke in August. The Supreme Court has asked the government to respond to his plea for bail so that he can seek treatment.
“We will not oppose the bail plea of the Italian marine. We will not do it on humanitarian grounds,” Swaraj told reporters. “If the marine wants to go home and if the court allows, he can.”
A day earlier, Italy’s foreign minister urged the court to grant Latorre’s request.
The marines’ counsel told the court that the Italian ambassador would sign an undertaking assuring Latorre’s return after two months.
The court also exempted Latorre, who has just been discharged from hospital in New Delhi, from appearing before a police station in the capital as stipulated in his current bail conditions.
Latorre and fellow marine Salvatore Girone are currently barred from leaving India pending a possible trial and have been living at Italy’s embassy here.
Latorre wants to be allowed to return to Italy to continue his recuperation following his hospitalisation in New Delhi.
While he was discharged from hospital on Sunday, the outgoing Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini has said Latorre’s chances of a full recovery would be increased by being allowed home.
Criminal proceedings against the pair were suspended in March when judges agreed to consider a challenge to prosecutors’ jurisdiction in the case and a request for the marines to be allowed home pending its outcome.
The marines were granted a home visit to vote in national elections last year but India was furious when the Italian government initially said they would not send the men back.
A subsequent U-turn which followed intense Indian diplomatic pressure triggered the resignation of Italy’s then-foreign minister.
In April 2012, Rome paid $190,000 to each of the victims’ families as compensation. In return, the families dropped their cases against the marines, but the state’s case continues.
