Suspend all trials against Italian marines: UN court to India

The global Tribunal on Law of the Sea (ITLOS) also sought initial report from both Italy and India by September 24 into the incident, PTI reported.

The UN’s tribunal on maritime law on Monday ordered India to halt court proceedings against two Italian marines pending the global body’s ruling on the deadly 2012 case that sparked a diplomatic row.

“Italy has based this request on a selective, self-serving and patently inaccurate account of the judicial and administrative actions that India has taken with regard to the killing of two unarmed fishermen operating within India’s exclusive economic zone by Italian Marines stationed on the MV Enrica Lexie“.

Italy had dragged India to global Tribunal on Law of the Sea (ITLOS) accusing delay in the trial of February 15, 2012, incident in which marines Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, who were on board ship “Enrica Lexie”, allegedly killed two Indian fishermen.

The judge said pending a decision by the arbitral tribunal, “Italy and India shall both suspend all court proceedings and shall refrain from initiating new ones which might aggravate or extend the dispute submitted to the… arbitral tribunal or might jeopardise or prejudice the carrying out of any decision which the arbitral tribunal may render”.

India’s consultant advised the tribunal that the marines “used automated weapons with out warning and shot in head and abdomen of the 2 fishermen…This case shouldn’t be coated by Article ninety seven of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea however quite a double homicide at sea”.

One of the servicemen, Massimiliano Latorre, was past year allowed to temporarily return to Italy for medical treatment and is still there. Italy maintains that Latorre and Girone opened fire on the fishing boat St Anthony in worldwide waters, while India claims that the incident occurred in waters covered by India’s jurisdiction.

The other marine, Salvatore Girone, has been living at Italy’s embassy in New Delhi. “It is surprising that Italy is insensitive to the interests and plight of the victims of crime and is adopting a discriminatory attitude”, India said in its submission.