Court: India can’t try Italian marines
TWO Italian marines accused of killing two Indian fishermen in 2012 were entitled to immunity from prosecution, a tribunal ruled last Thursday (2) in a case that poisoned ties between the two countries.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague said it had decided by three votes to two “the Marines are entitled to immunity in relation to the acts they committed during the incident”.
Salvatore Girone and Massimiliano Latorre spent years facing charges in India for shooting the fishermen when their boat neared the Italian oil tanker MV Enrica Lexie off the Kerala coast.
Italy took the issue to the PCA in 2015, saying the tribunal should hear the case under maritime law as the incident happened in international waters off India’s southern coast.
Italy argued that the marines were stationed on the tanker because the region was prone to piracy, and said they had fired on the fishing boat because it failed to heed warnings to stay away.
But New Delhi insisted the two marines – one of whom was allowed home in 2014 for medical reasons and the other in 2016 – should both return to India for a final judgement by an Indian court.
A five-member panel chaired by Russian judge Vladimir Golitsyn, however, handed down a ruling on May 20 – but only announced last Thursday – saying “India is precluded from exercising its jurisdiction over the marines.”
The tribunal noted Italy has said it would continue a criminal investigation into the Enrica Lexie incident and that India “must take the necessary steps to cease to exercise its criminal jurisdiction over the marines, and that no other remedies are required.”
But the panel however did find that India was entitled to compensation for “loss of life, physical harm, material damage to property and moral harm suffered by the captain and other crew members” of the Indian boat, called the St. Antony.