The Indian
government has disagreed with the Italian foreign ministry's claim that
the UN Arbitration court has ordered for the release of the marine held
in the country on murder charges. Salvatore Girone and Massimiliano
Latorre – both Italian marines – were arrested in 2012 after they had
shot and killed two Indian fishermen in southern India, suspecting that
they were pirates.
While both the marines were granted bail, Girone has been detained
at the Italian embassy in New Delhi since the past four years and
Latorre was sent to Italy on bail after he suffered a stroke in 2014.
Now,
Indian government sources have alleged that the European country is
misrepresenting the court order and said that the Supreme Court had the
right to exercise jurisdiction over their bail, according to media
reports.
An international tribunal – Permanent Court of
Arbitration in The Hague – was called in to mediate between the two
countries after they agreed to abide by its ruling in 2015.
According to the agreement, no appeals can be made against the UN tribunal ruling nor can it be challenged.
In a statement,
external affairs ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said: "The Tribunal
left it to the Supreme Court of India to fix the precise conditions of
Sergeant Girone's bail. This could include him reporting to an authority
in Italy designated by our Supreme Court, surrendering his passport to
Italian authorities and not leaving Italy without the permission of our
Supreme Court. Italy shall apprise our Supreme Court of his situation
every three months."
Italy has been arguing that the case should
not be heard in India as the incident happened in international waters.
However, India has remained confident that the issue of jurisdiction
will be determined in their favour.
Italian news agency ANSA
quoted Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi as saying that he was
sending a message of "friendship and cooperation to the great people of
India and to his Indian counterpart [Narendra Modi]."
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