Indian Supreme Court extends Italian marine’s stay in Italy

Latorre was allowed by the Supreme Court in September 2014 to go to Italy initially for 4 months after he had suffered a brain stroke.

An Italy senator has said that Massimiliano Latorre, one of the two Italian marines accused of killing two Kerala fishermen in 2012, will not return to India for trial.

Salvatore Girone, the 2nd sailor on a test, has been kept within the German embassy in New Delhi.

In a sign of lingering tensions over the case, Italy’s foreign ministry issued a tetchy reaction to Wednesday’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.

On August 28, the court had suspended all proceedings in the case and adjourned the hearing to today after centre and Italy informed the bench that the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in Hamburg had directed that “as part of provisional measures”, both Italy and India shall suspend all court proceedings relating to the matter.

Sorabjee submitted that Italy has invoked global arbitration challenging India’s jurisdiction to try two of its marines.

India’s top court on Wednesday granted an Italian marine detained over the killing of two fishermen another three months at home to recover from a medical condition, amid a diplomatic row over the case.

The two marines have told court they mistook the fishing boat for a pirate ship and fired warning shots. Later his stay was extended by the apex court. The six-month period ends tomorrow.

President of the Senate Defence Committee Nicola Latorre said on Tuesday that they are also looking into ways to bring the other accused marine, Salvatore Girone, back to Italy, local media agencies reported. He said, “Italian Marines committed crime in the Indian land and they are liable to obey the Indian rule”.