New Delhi : In a huge setback for the country, the Arbitral Tribunal in Hague ruled that Indian courts did not have jurisdiction to try the two Italian marines who killed 2 of our fishermen off Kerala coast in 2012. The Tribunal was set up under UN Convention on the Law of the Sea(UNCLOS) specially for the Italian marines case. The ruling has ordered India to cease all criminal proceedings against the duo.
Italy had dragged India to the International Tribunal in Hamburg 2015 from where the case was forwarded to the Arbitral Tribunal in Hague.
According to the extract of final verdict “Marines are entitled to immunity in relation to the acts they they committed during the incident of 15 February 2012 and that India is precluded from exercising its jurisdiction over the Marines.’
The verdict was arrived by 3 votes to 2 in wihich India’s PS Rao and Patrick Robinson of Jamaica cast negative votes while the other three members Italy’s Professor Francesco Francioni, South Korea’s Jin-Hyn Paik Korea and Russia’s Vldimir Golitsyn voted pro-verdict.
Interestingly, the tribunal upheld the “conduct of the Indian authorities with respect to the incident under the provisions of the UNCLOS”. It took note of how India never violated provisions of UNCLOS relating to freedom of navigation on the high seas, status of ships, penal jurisdiction in matters of dispute and cooperation for repression of piracy. However, when it came to India’s counter-claims against Italy about jurisdiction and rights of a costal state over its exclusive economic zone, the tribunal would have none of it an rather stuck with the view that “immunities enjoyed by the Marines as State officials “ made them exceptions to the jurisdiction of Indian courts.
On 15 Feb, 2012 Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, the two Italian marines postd on oil tanker Enrica Lexie, shot at two Indian fishermen on an Indian vessel for what they claim was mistaken notion that the men were pirates. After three years, Italy moved ITLOS seeking for Latorre and Girone to stay in their own country during the trial process and also to stop India from going ahead with its criminal prosecution.
