Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, Marines from the Apulia region, are in India awaiting charges for the murder of two Indian fishermen after allegedly mistaking them for pirates and opening fire on their fishing trawler while they were guarding the privately owned Italian-flagged oil-tanker Enrica Lexie off the coast of Kerala, India, in February 2012.
After two years, India finally reached a decision. The two Italian sailors, who will face charges of murder while on anti-piracy duties, will not be sentenced to death (as they initially risked). But they will be processed on the basis of the 1988 anti-piracy and anti-terrorism Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Navigation, known as the Sua Convention law.
This is a decision that Italy cannot accept. As premier Enrico Letta said, “Italy and the European Union will react” to this decision, because it allows India to judge Italy as a terrorist state; the two Marines, on duty and in uniform when the killing took place, were representing Italy.
Foreign Minister Emma Bonino said she was counting on “initiatives and words to intervene in this case, not only on a bilateral level but also at the level of the European Union”. The European Union also reacted. “The case of two Italian anti-piracy marines facing murder charges in India affects all of Europe” said Catherine Ashton, the High Representative for Foreign Affairs for the European Union.
Instead of the death penalty, as initially claimed, Indian prosecutors would opt for 10 years in prison. The Italian government, however, “reserved the right to take any action” against this solution. Italian President Giorgio Napolitano said that the case had been managed in “contradictory, disconcerting ways by the Indian authorities”. On a recent phone call with the Marines, he promised they would come back to Italy “with honor”.
Some legal experts have suggested India would lose its claim to jurisdiction over the killings, which took place outside its territorial waters, unless it used the anti-piracy law. Rome has been petitioning the Indian Supreme Court to rule out use of the anti-piracy law and return the two marines to Italy as soon as possible.
Donate 