Ind Supreme Court to hear marines' case

(ANSA) - New Delhi, April 20 - An Indian Supreme Court hearing on April 30 will reconsider whether to permit the the SUA Act to be applied in the case of two Italian marines held for the 2012 killing of two fishermen. The SUA Act calls for the automatic application of the death penalty in case of conviction for murder. The Supreme court will hear both an appeal made by the marines to strike the use of the NIA investigative police, and with that the SUA Act as well. The court will at the same hearing consider an appeal for the application of the law made by an elderly fisherman who was on the boat with those who died.
    The fisherman Kilsariyan made an appeal against the Indian State petitioning that "the main provisions" of the SUA Act and of the Admiralty Offences (Colonial Act) be applied, and that the case be reintroduced to a special court in New Delhi. On November 10, 2014, the Supreme Court ruled that the fisherman Kilsariyan's appeal was admissible, and attached it to the dossier of Latorre and Girone.
    The use of the SUA Act had been stricken from the case last year after an Italian appeal and vigorous protest by the Italian government. Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone have been held without charge since February 2012 in connection with the shooting deaths of two fishermen, whom they allegedly mistook for pirates. Last year they petitioned the Supreme Court not to allow India to use its NIA anti-terrorism police to probe the case, arguing that the NIA has no jurisdiction over the incident.