India's top court delays decision on marine's return

Request Latorre be allowed to leave for medical treatment

(ANSA) - New Delhi, September 8 - The Supreme Court in New Delhi on Monday delayed a decision on whether to allow Italian marine Massimilian Latorre to return to Italy for three or four months to receive treatment after suffering a stroke-like attack. The court asked the Indian government for an opinion and adjourned proceedings until Friday. The move is the latest in a long series of delays in the Indian authorities' handling of the case of Latorre and Salvatore Girone, who are are accused of killing two India fishermen during an anti-piracy mission and have been held in India since 2012. Latorre was released from hospital in New Delhi on Sunday, a week after suffering a minor transient ischemic attack (TIA).

The obligation for him to sign in each week at a police station in the Indian capital has been lifted for a fortnight. Latorre and Girone are accused of killing fishermen Valentine (aka Gelastine) and Ajesh Binki after allegedly mistaking them for pirates and opening fire on their fishing trawler while guarding the privately owned Italian-flagged oil-tanker MT Enrica Lexie off the coast of Kerala on February 15, 2012. Rome has protested the many delays in the case, which has caused major diplomatic friction between the countries. It successfully fought to ensure New Delhi took the death penalty off the table and dropped the application of a severe anti-terrorism, anti-piracy law, which it said would have equated Italy with a terrorist state.

Rome argues the case is not in India's jurisdiction as the incident took place outside the country's territorial waters. It also says the marines should be exempt from prosecution in India, because they are servicemen who were working on an anti-piracy mission, and allowed to return home.