India must halt court case on Italy marine shooting: UN court

A U.N.-mandated tribunal on Monday ordered India to put on hold legal proceedings against two Italian marines accused of killing two Indian fishermen in 2012 until an arbitration panel has ruled on the dispute.

The 21-member global Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, based in German port town of Hamburg, ruled that it would not take action over the 2012 killing of two Indian fishermen – an incident that sparked a diplomatic dispute between Italy and India.

But the UN court did not accede to Rome’s second request for both marines to be freed immediately pending a final ruling.

In its ruling, the tribuinal asked both India and Italy to submit a report to it by September 24, and added that there was still a question over which country had jurisdiction over the case that has been going on for more than three years.

“The tribunal recognized the full legitimacy and competency of the arbitration court on the matter”, the Italian Foreign Ministry quoted Francesco Azzarello as saying.

The other marine, Salvatore Girone, has been living at Italy’s embassy in New Delhi.

It has pleaded that India must cease to exercise any form of jurisdiction over the Enrica Lexie Incident and the Italian Marines, including any measure of restraint with respect to Sergeant Latorre and Sergeant Girone.

The Tribunal said it was aware of the grief and suffering of the families of the two Indian fishermen who were killed and also the consequences that lengthy restrictions on liberty entail for the two marines and their families.

According to an NDTV report, India’s representative told the UN tribunal that the marines “used automatic weapons without warning and shot the fishermen in the head and stomach…This case is not covered by Article 97 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea but (is) rather a double murder at sea”.

The detention of the marines and the long delay in the case coming to trial is a sore subject in Italy with Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s government frequently being flayed by the opposition over its failure to bring both men home. “The tribunal, in effect, chose to decide nothing”, said Maurizio Gasparri, a senator with Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party.