SC extends marine’s stay in Italy by 6 months

Agencies/New DelhiThe Supreme Court yesterday granted an Italian marine detained over the 2012 killing of two fishermen off the coast of Kerala another six months at home to recover from a medical condition. Massimiliano Lattore and his fellow marine Salvatore Girone shot the fishermen while serving as part of an anti-piracy mission off southern India in 2012. The incident led to a diplomatic row between Italy and India with both marines barred from leaving India pending trial. It led to the collapse of a European Union-India summit planned during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to France and Germany this spring. Lattore was finally allowed to travel back to his country last year for what Italian media reports described as a minor procedure to correct a congenital heart disease. In April this year, he had sought and received a three-month stay from returning to India. The Supreme Court yesterday granted him six more months in Italy for recovery while accepting his fresh application for an extension of the stay on his return order. “The court permitted Latorre to extend his stay for six more months on medical grounds, as the government said it had no objection,” defence lawyer Suhail Dutt said. The other marine, Girone, is living at Italy’s embassy in New Delhi. The trial against the marines remains pending at a special court in New Delhi over confusion which agency would investigate their case. It had not opened the case when the pair was in India. The Italian government in June announced that it had launched international arbitration proceedings in the case. The unilateral move by the Italian government was a result of failure of direct negotiations with its Indian counterpart. Yesterday, the Italian government requested the top court in New Delhi to not hear the criminal trial of the marines as it wanted arbitration on the matter. During yesterday’s proceedings, Additional Solicitor General P S Narasimha informed the court that the government had received a notice regarding the arbitration. “He (Narasimha) informed the court that India will put forth its stand and will seek maintainability of the case, meaning that the case should continue to be heard in India,” said Raj Kamal, another defence lawyer. The court sought a formal response from the government by August 26 on Italy’s decision to go to international arbitration.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 has yet to come to trial.  Ever since the incident India has insisted that the fate of the two marines must be resolved in its courts because its citizens were shot in its territorial waters. Italy’s government has argued that the shooting occurred in international waters off southern India and should be dealt under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).