Italy approached the Supreme Court on Thursday to modify bail conditions of its marine Massimiliano latorre, who is presently in Italy recovering from a medical procedure.
The Government of Italy, which is pursuing litigation for its two marines accused of murdering two Indian fishermen on high seas suspecting them to be pirates, requested the apex court to grant bail to latorre on similar conditions fixed for the other marine, Salvatore Girone in May this year.
Girone was granted bail after India consented to his request to return to Italy as both the countries had approached the International Tribunal for the law of the Seas (ITlOS) to determine whether India had the jurisdiction to try the marines.
While India claimed that the incident of February 15, 2012 occurred inside the waters of its Exclusive Economic Zone, Italy maintained that the incident happened at the high sea, beyond the Indian territorial waters. Moreover, Italy claimed that under the UN Convention on law of the Seas, the marines were guarding an Italian oil tanker Enrica lexie, in which event they enjoyed sovereign immunity and could be tried for any crime only by Italian Government.
As the dispute was expected to end only by January next year, Court allowed Girone to return to his country on an undertaking to remain under the jurisdiction of Indian Supreme Court and report to police station in Italy on first Wednesday of every month. He was required not to tamper evidence and any violation of the bail conditions would result in cancellation of bail, the Court ordered.
Italy sought these conditions for latorre as well. Senior advocate KTS Tulsi, who represented the marine on behalf of the Italian government mentioned the application for urgent listing as the undertaking given by latorre to return to India was to expire on September 30.