The Supreme Court yesterday granted an Italian marine detained over the killing of two fishermen another three months at home on health grounds in the latest chapter of a legal battle that has caused a diplomatic row.
The decision defuses a possible judicial standoff after an Italian senator said the day before that Massimiliano Latorre would not return to face trial as he had been due to by tomorrow, having earlier been allowed home for medical treatment.
Latorre and his fellow marine Salvatore Girone are accused of shooting the fishermen while protecting an Italian oil tanker as part of an anti-piracy mission off Kerala’s coast in 2012.
The incident, which is now subject to international arbitration, has badly strained relations between Rome and New Delhi, particularly after the two marines overstayed in Italy after being allowed home in early 2013 to vote in general elections.
Both marines were then barred from leaving India again pending a trial, but Latorre was allowed to travel back to Italy in 2014 for medical treatment after he suffered a blood blockage in his brain.
The court yesterday extended Latorre’s permission to stay in Italy until April 30.
The other marine, Girone, is living at Italy’s embassy in New Delhi and remains barred from leaving India pending a resolution of the dispute.
The Supreme Court’s order came soon after Italian senator Nicola Latorre said the marine would not be returning to India and Italy was also exploring the return of the second marine, NDTV reported.
His reported remarks drew sharp reactions in Kerala.
“The Italian government has stood up for its soldiers, our government must stand up for us,” T Peter, a top official with the National Federation of Fishermen was quoted as saying by NDTV.
“I only request the government of India to bring back these men to stand trial in India,” Kerala Chief Minister Oomen Chandy said.
Italy initiated arbitration proceedings last year and, in August, a UN body, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), ordered India to suspend court proceedings against the pair.
ITLOS rejected Rome’s request for both marines to be freed immediately pending a final ruling.
The detention of the marines, the murder charges and the long wait for the case to be resolved are sore subjects in Italy with Prime Minister Matteo Renzi regularly flayed by opposition leaders for failing to get both men home.
Italy insists the oil tanker, the MV Enrica Lexie, was in international waters at the time of the incident.
India argues that the case is not a maritime dispute but “a double murder at sea”, in which one fisherman was shot in the head and the other in the stomach.
In a sign of lingering tensions over the case, Italy’s foreign ministry issued a tetchy reaction to yesterday’s ruling, emphasising that, in Rome’s view, the Indian court was not entitled to make any ruling on Latorre’s case pending the outcome of the arbitration process.