ITLOS puts “status quo” on Italian Marines case

Rome: Italy on Monday hailed as “a useful result” a UN tribunal’s order to “suspend” court proceedings in India and Italy involving two Italian marines charged with killing two Indian fishermen, saying it definitively established that the Indian justice system will not be handling the case.

In Monday’s ruling, the court said: “Italy and India shall both suspend all court proceedings and shall refrain from initiating new ones that might aggravate or extend the dispute submitted”.

Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone were part of a military team on anti-pirate duty protecting an Italian oil tanker in 2012, when, they say, they mistook a fishing boat for a pirate vessel and fired warning shots. One of the men was allowed to travel to Italy for heart surgery while the other remains inside the Italian embassy, out of reach of Indian authorities.

Vladimir Golitsyn, Hearing Italy’s appeal in the case, the President of the worldwide Tribunal on Law of the Sea (ITLOS), asked both countries to submit the initial report in the entire incident by September 25.

“The Tribunal requested each India and Italy to droop all courtroom proceedings however stored mum on Italy’s plea to permit him return residence”.

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.

The Italian foreign minister added that the verdict was “useful”, as it “will be global arbitration, as Italy had requested, that will handle this case”. Miserable over India’s treatment of the marine’s issue, Italy took the matter to the ITLOS testing Indian ward for the situation. The order said that “a dispute appears to exist between the Parties concerning the interpretation or application of the Convention, and it finds that the Annex VII arbitral tribunal would prima facie have jurisdiction over the dispute”.

“As a State Party to UNCLOS and as a responsible member of the worldwide community that has consistently stood by its global obligations, India will continue to abide by the Tribunal’s decisions, including the present one on Provisional Measures”, the statement said.