Supreme Court allows Italian Marine to go home

The Supreme Court has finally allowed Salvatore Girone, one of the two Italian marines accused of killing two fishermen off Kerala, to return to Italy.  The Centre did not raise any objection to the court’s decision on May 26. Massimiliano Latorre, the other co-accused in the case, is already in Italy. He was allowed to return home by the Supreme Court in September 2014 on medical grounds. The court had extended his stay there till September 30.  Italy had requested the Supreme Court of India to urgently enforce a United Nations arbitration tribunal’s decision enabling Mr. Girone to quickly return from India. “Italy submitted a request to the summer recess Supreme Court of India to urgently enforce the decision of The Hague Court of Arbitration … enabling Italian marine Salvatore Girone to quickly return to Italy,” the Italian Foreign Ministry said in a statement in Rome on May 23. As per the arbitration tribunal’s decision, Italy and India were asked to cooperate in defining the conditions and the ways with which to regulate Mr Girone’s return and permanence in Italy.  The two sides were awaiting the decision of the arbitration proceeding on the dispute over the jurisdiction on the Enrica Lexie case.