Kottayam:
A meeting between Italy's deputy Foreign Minister Staffan de Mistura and Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Wednesday night failed to end the standoff between India and Italy over the death of two Indian fishermen who were shot dead by two Italian marines off the coast of Kochi last week.
The Chief Minister has reportedly told the top Italian officials who visited him last night that there was "no room for diplomacy" in the matter. Italy's deputy Foreign Minister had requested his government to withdraw the murder case filed against the marines who were arrested on Sunday and are currently in police custody. Italy's efforts to convince the Centre on this issue had met with little success yesterday.
Emerging from an hour-long meeting, Mr Chandy told reporters that the fishermen were killed in a "brutal manner" and "we did not discuss" the compensation issue. The Italian side wanted to meet the relatives of the fishermen but was told that the situation is "not right" for it, Mr Chandy added. Earlier this week, Mr Chandy had termed the incident as a "cold-blooded murder" and had promised "strict legal action".
"We have full fail in the judiciary... and we hope that something would come up in coming days," the Italian Minister said after the meeting.
The two Italian soldiers, Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, were guarding merchant vessel Enrica Lexie when they allegedly mistook the fishermen - Ajesh Binki, 25, from Tamil Nadu and Jelestine, 45, from Kerala - for Somalian pirates and fired at them. The two will be produced in the Kerala High court today. Yesterday, Italy moved the court seeking quashing of the FIR against them.
Italy says India has wrongly arrested the marines. Its officials have stressed that their laws require armed guards to be on board their ships, and that the marines mistook the fishermen for Somalian pirates. Italy wants the marines to be tried at home according to international laws; it says India's action is "unilateral and coercive."
But India says the law of the land must apply. It says the incident took place within its waters, and that the fishermen were shot at without any provocation.
The family of Jelestine, one of the two Indians who were killed, yesterday filed a case in court saying the arrested Italians should not be allowed to leave Kerala without paying a crore as compensation. In response to the petition, the Kerala High Court has said that the Italian ship cannot leave India till a bank guarantee of 25 lakhs is provided in court. However, this is an interim order - both parties will now file counter-affidavits.