The Supreme Court is to hold on Monday a decisive hearing on a murder case that has poisoned the relations between New Delhi and the Italian Government and may escalate into a bigger row with the European Union.
The dispute dates back to February 15, 2012 when Italian marines Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone allegedly killed two Indian fishermen, mistaking them for pirates. The soldiers were part of the security team of an Italian oil tanker crossing the Indian Ocean.
After months of legal wrangling, the case has reached a flashpoint as the Indian Government faces a Supreme Court deadline to present charges against the Italians.
“It will be a key hearing, anything can happen,” Viplav Sharma, an Indian lawyer defending the Italian marines, told
According to Indian press reports, the Government has dropped plans to invoke the provisions of a tough anti-piracy and anti-terrorism law that would have exposed Latorre and Girone to the death penalty.
The Asian Age newspaper had reported on Saturday that the marines would still be prosecuted under the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against Safety of Maritime Navigation And Fixed Platforms on Continental Shelf Act (SUA).
Latorre and Girone will face accusations of unlawfully or intentionally committing an act of violence against a person who may endanger the safe navigation of a ship, a crime carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment, Asian Age said.
But Italy’s special envoy on the case, Staffan de Mistura, has warned that any application of SUA provisions would be unacceptable.
“If the decision is to apply the SUA act, it would be an act of equating Italy to a terrorist state,” he said Monday. He has called for the court to dismiss the case, or at least grant the marines permission to return home until a trial actually starts.
The incident they are accused of allegedly took place 20.5 nautical miles (38 kilometers) from India’s shore, outside of its territorial waters but inside its so-called “contiguous zone” — an area on which New Delhi can claim at least some legal control.
Key to the case are disputes on whether the incident should be dealt by Indian or international courts, whether soldiers deployed on a commercial vessel can claim sovereign immunity, and whether they are answerable to civilian or military justice.
In January 2013, India’s Supreme Court had ordered the marines be tried by a special federal court, and called for a resolution of the case within a year. Since then, there has been hardly any progress.
“The Indian Government has yet to decide the charges or initiate the trial. It has not moved an inch in defiance of court orders,” the lead council for the Italians, Mukul Rohatgi, said to dpa.
Attorney General Goolam E Vahanvati blamed the delay on difficulties in questioning other marines who witnessed the incident. Italy refused to let them travel to India, fearing for their arrest; in the end, they were interrogated via videolink in November.
In Italy, the controversy has stirred strong emotions.
Last year, then-foreign minister Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata resigned after the Government disowned his plan not to return the accused to New Delhi, at the end of a temporary repatriation permit they were granted by India.
More recently Ignazio La Russa, a former defence minister who leads a small right-wing opposition party, has proposed fielding the marines as candidates for European Parliament elections in May, to give them EU immunity.
In India, the case is making smaller headlines. Nevertheless, the Government is treading cautiously as the case is being closely followed for signs of reprieve toward Rome by the ruling alliance, whose chairwoman is Italy-born Sonia Gandhi.
The Times of India newspaper charged last month that “Government bungling” had “blown up the tragic incident into a big bilateral face-off, with broader international consequences.” “If it (India) persists in its zeal to treat the Italian marines as terrorists, what if EU retaliates by ceasing cooperation with us when it comes to the real terrorists? What happens to the Indian economy if they cut off market access to us?” it asked.
EU Industry Commissioner Antonio Tajani, who is an Italian, has suggested freezing off free trade talks with India, while the bloc’s top diplomat, Catherine Ashton, told Italian EU lawmakers that she has “serious concerns.”
Italy’s sitting defence minister, Mario Mauro, has gone as far as threatening Italy’s withdrawal from NATO — and UN — backed anti-piracy missions, unless Girone and Latorre are acquitted and allowed to return home “with honour.” The two marines, who are living on bail in the premises of the Italian embassy in New Delhi, continue to profess their innocence.
Their lawyers say they fired warning shots and never aimed for the fishermen.
“We are sorry for the loss of two human lives, but we do not feel at all responsible,” Girone told Italian public broadcaster RAI on Thursday.