(By Paul Virgo)
India's Supreme Court on
Friday agreed to consider an appeal against NIA anti-terrorism
prosecutors handling the case of two Italian marines accused of
killing two Indian fishermen during an anti-piracy mission in
2012.
The top court suspended the start of a trial at a special
court and said it will look at Italy's petition in a hearing in
four weeks.
In the petition, Italy also requested that marines
Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone be allowed to return
home and that the whole case be dropped.
The 50-page appeal petition argues that allowing the NIA to
probe the case is not valid because their jurisdiction only
extends to certain laws, such as suppression of piracy, which do
not apply to the Italian sailors.
Latorre and Girone are accused of killing fishermen
Valentine (aka Gelastine) and Ajesh Binki after allegedly
mistaking them for pirates and reportedly opening fire on their
fishing trawler.
The incident occurred while the marines were guarding the
privately owned Italian-flagged oil-tanker MT Enrica Lexie off
the coast of the southern Indian state of Kerala in February
2012.
The two marines have been living and working at the Italian
embassy in India pending charges.
Rome has protested a long series of delays in the case,
which has caused a deep diplomatic schism between the countries.
It successfully fought to ensure New Delhi take the
death penalty off the table and drop the application of a severe
anti-terrorism, anti-piracy law, which it said would have
equated Italy with a terrorist state.
Rome is seeking international arbitration in the case,
which it argues is not India's jurisdiction as the incident took
place outside the country's territorial waters.
It also says the marines should be exempt from prosecution
in India because they are servicemen who were working on an
anti-piracy mission.
Premier Matteo Renzi on his appointment last month called
the case "absurd and shocking".
He said on Thursday that he had called on United States
President Barack Obama to support Italy over the marines during
a meeting between the leaders in Rome.
"The position of the Italian government is unchanged in
staunchly claiming Italian jurisdiction over the affair and
asking for the immediate return of our military personnel to
Italy," read an government statement released after the Indian
Supreme court agreed to consider the petition.
"The government will continue to take all international
actions to help achieve both these goals as soon as possible".
The Italian government's special envoy on the case Staffan
de Mistura has argued that if the marines must face trial, it
should be in Italy.
De Mistura said this week that if a trial starts in India,
Italy will snub the proceedings.
Italy has won the backing of the European Union, which has
said the case endangers international anti-piracy operations.
Rome is also trying to get the United Nations involved.
This month a spokesman for United Nations High Commissioner
for Human Rights Navi Pillay said she was "worried about the
respect of human rights" given the length of time the pair have
been kept in India.
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