Murder Accused Italian Marine’s Italy Stay Extended Till 30 April
SC allows one of the two Italian marines accused of killing fishermen in Kerala to stay in Italy till 30 April.
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India’s Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed one of two Italian marines facing murder charges over the deaths of two Indian fishermen to stay in his home country until 30 April following heart surgery.
The decision defuses a possible judicial stand-off after an Italian senator said the day before that Massimiliano Latorre would not return to face trial as he had been due to by this Friday, having earlier been allowed home for medical treatment.
The three-judge Supreme Court bench was headed by Justice Anil R Dave.
SC has set a hearing on 13 April to take up the case of the marines, who stand accused of killing two Indian fishermen off the Kerala coast almost four years ago in an anti-piracy operation that went tragically wrong.
The second sailor on trial, Salvatore Girone, remains at the Italian embassy in New Delhi.
Italy and India have been at loggerheads over who has jurisdiction over the case, and Italy has sought international arbitration.
The fallout from India’s arrest of the marines has damaged wider relations between Italy and India, contributing to the collapse of a European Union-India summit last year.
In another case this week, a court in Tamil Nadu sentenced 35 crew members of a private American ship – 25 of them foreigners – to five years in jail for illegal possession of arms in Indian waters.