India examining Italy's refusal to send back marines charged with killing fishermen

A government legal team is examining Italy's letter and its advice will determine India's next course of action. External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said today, "We will respond after seeing what Italy's reasoning is. It was also our country's collective decision."

The BJP has said it will raise the issue in Parliament tomorrow. Party spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy said, "It is a bluff that has been played. The BJP would like an answer on why the Italian Govt took India so casually. The sailors who ran back should be brought back and should go under Indian trail. They were allowed to go for Christmas, that is the generosity of the Indian government."

The Italian foreign office had said in a statement last evening that the marines will not return as New Delhi does not have the jurisdiction to try them. "Italy has always argued that Indian authorities have violated their obligations under international law... especially the principle of immunity from trial by the organs of a foreign state and the United Nation Convention on the Law of the Sea," it said in a statement.

Italy said India had not responded to its request for a diplomatic solution and that the decision not to send Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone back to India was taken by Italy's defence and justice ministries in consultation with the prime minister's office.

The Supreme Court had in February allowed the two marines to go back to Italy for four weeks to vote in elections. Italy voted on February 24-25. The Italian government had given an undertaking in the Supreme Court that Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone would return to India after voting. On the legal front, someone, perhaps the Kerala government or the families of the fishermen killed, will now have to move the Supreme Court to seek directions.

This was the marines' second visit back home. The Kerala High Court had allowed them a two-week vacation during Christmas last year. That time they had returned.

The families of the two fishermen said, "There is no scope for justice now." They said they had feared that if the two men were allowed to return they would not come back. "This can happen only with mutual understanding. I can't say who is involved in this sort of understanding. This horrific incident shouldn't happen to any other fisherman's family," said the wife of one of the fishermen.

The Congress government in Kerala has said it will not take the matter lightly. "This is a complete shame that we are not able to get the Italian Marines back when they are responsible for the death of two fishermen," the state's home minister T Radhakrishnan said.  When the marines were allowed to go home for Christmas, the Kerala government had categorically said that the onus of getting them back was on the Centre.

On February 15 last year, Mr Latorre and Mr Girone allegedly shot dead two Indian fishermen off the Alappuzha coast in Kerala. They said they suspected them to be pirates attacking their merchant vessel. Italy claims the incident occurred in international waters and has been trying to get Latorre and Girone tried in Italian courts, while India contends the shooting occurred in its own territory.

The two marines were out on bail and staying in Delhi, where the Supreme Court had ordered their trial to be held in a special court, saying Kerala doesn't have powers to try the case.