The Supreme Court on Wednesday extended till April 30, 2016 the liberty extended to Italian marine Massimiliano Latorre to stay back in Italy.
The court asked the Centre to brief it by April 13 about developments in international arbitration proceedings in the marines case.
On Tuesday, the president of the defence committee of the Italian Senate declared that the marine Latorre will not return to face the judicial process for the 2012 murder of two fishermen off the Kerala coast.
“Massimiliano Latorre will not go back to India and work is being done on the possibility of requesting for Salvatore Girone to be able to return to Italy,” Senatore Nicola Latorre (not related to the marine) was quoted as saying by Italy’s ANSA news agency today.
Girone, the other accused, is still in India and Italy has been seeking his return as well.
The Supreme Court on July 13, 2015, had allowed Latorre to stay in Italy for another six months on medical grounds, after the government did not object to his plea.
The marines, who were on board ship ‘Enrica Lexie’, are accused of killing two Indian fishermen off the Kerala coast on February 15, 2012 after mistaking them for pirates.
The Supreme Court which was handling the case suspended the court proceedings relating to the trial of two marines in August 2015 following an order to this effect by International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) which was approached by Italy for international arbitration.
