Apex court allows marine Latorre to stay back in Italy

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday permitted Italian marine Massimiliano Latorre, one of the two accused of killing Indian fishermen off the Kerala coast in 2012, to continue to stay in Italy till an international tribunal rules which country has the right to try the case.

MASSIMILIANO LATORRE CAN STAY IN ITALY TILL THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF ARBITRATION TAKES A CALL ON THE JURISDICTIONAL ISSUE

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court allowed on Wednesday Massimiliano Latorre, the second Italian marine accused of killing two Indian fishermen off the Kerala coast in 2012, to remain in his country till the international arbitral tribunal decided the jurisdictional issue.

The apex court said all the conditions, which were imposed on the other marine, Salvatore Girone, would be applicable on Latorre as well.

A bench headed by Justice AR Dave added another condition on the Union government to submit to the SC a report every three months about the progress of case at the international arbitral tribunal, which would take a decision on which country had the right to try the case.

The bench, also comprising Justices Kurian Joseph and Amitava Roy, passed the order after the Centre placed before it a written affidavit, saying it had no objection to Latorre’s plea, provided the same conditions were imposed on him as was done in the case of the other marine.

During the brief hearing, senior advocate KN Balagopal, appearing for Kerala government, raised some objections on the plea.

Senior advocate Rana Mukharjee, appearing for the victims’ family, said it was unlikely that the matter would conclude before the tribunal by 2018 or 2020 and claimed that the game plan was to drag the case.

The court’s direction came on a fresh plea by Italy seeking modification of bail conditions of Latorre to enable him remain in that country till the jurisdictional issue is decided by the international tribunal.