Fishermen View Enrica Lexie Verdict as ‘Invasion’ of Their Rights and Dignity

The Hague-headquartered Permanent Court of Arbitration Tribunal has upheld the conduct of the Indian authorities in the Enrica Lexie case—in which the Italian marines were accused of killing two Indian fishermen in 2012. However, owing to its decision to bar India from the marines’ prosecution, the fisherfolk community is seeing the verdict as an invasion of their rights and dignity.

“If the incident would have taken place in Italy, would they have let the killers go scot-free? This means our fishers will have to live in perpetual fear, which is unacceptable,” said Peter Mathia, the president of All Kerala Fishing Boat Operators’ Association, as per The Hindu report.

On July 2, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava, during an online media briefing, had said that the international tribunal had held that the two marines violated the international law, and as a result, Italy breached India’s freedom of navigation under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

In February 2012, India had accused two Italian marines, Salvatore Girone and Massimiliano Latorre, onboard the MV Enrica Lexie [an Italian flagged oil tanker] of killing two Indian fishermen who were on a fishing vessel off Kerala coast in India's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

The National Fishworkers’ Forum (NFF) and Kerala Swathantra Matsyathozhilali Federation have said that the verdict is a major setback.

“We wanted the Italian marines to be punished as per the law. But from the very beginning, the governments at the Centre have been taking a stand favouring them. They never considered our arguments in the matter, leaving many loopholes in the case,” said the organisations.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday said it was unfortunate that the trial of the Italian marines was not taking place in India and said that the state was not in favour of withdrawing the case from the Supreme Court.

The tribunal has stated that the marines cannot be prosecuted in India due to the official immunity enjoyed by them.

"It's unfortunate that the trial is not taking place in our country. Some media reports suggested that we were unable to pose our arguments well with the Tribunal. However, about the compensation, our country needs to take strong steps to ensure it," Vijayan said.

When asked about the Centre's decision to file an affidavit in the Supreme Court to withdraw the case, Vijayan said Kerala was not in favour of it. "If the centre is planning to withdraw the case, Kerala is not in favour of it and will inform the Centre," Vijayan said.

While India has maintained that as the incident happened in Indian waters and the fishermen killed were Indian, the case must be tried as per its laws, Italy claimed that the shooting took place outside Indian territorial waters and its marines were on-board the ship with the Italian flag.

India had detained the two marines after the shooting incident, but later allowed them to return to Italy on specific conditions following separate orders by the Supreme Court.

The story so far

On February 15, 2012, two Italian Marines, Chief Master Sergeant Latorre and Sergeant Girone, who were on board the MV Enrica Lexie, sailing from Sri Lanka towards Djibouti, reportedly killed two Indian fishermen approximately 20.5 nautical miles off Kerala in India’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The unarmed fishermen who were on the fishing vessel St Antony had been killed without any warning—one shot through the head, the other in the stomach, with automatic weapons.

However, Italy maintained that the marines assessed that it “was on a collision course with the MV Enrica Lexie and that this modus operandi was consistent with a pirate attack” as the Indian vessel drew close.

The Kerala Police had lodged an FIR and had arrested the marines; who were then sent to judicial custody. The marines had approached the High Court pleading that their arrest, detention and all criminal proceedings were without jurisdiction, and asking that they be released. They also approached the Supreme Court asking the court to hand them over to the Italian authorities back home who had begun criminal proceedings against them under Italian law by then.

In between, the Kerala Police had charged the marines under Section 3 of the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation and Fixed Platforms on the Continental Shelf Act, 2002 (SUA), which attracts death penalty.

While the Kerala High Court had dismissed the marines’ petition observing that “through a Government of India notification in 1981, the IPC had been extended to the EEZ, and Kerala’s territorial jurisdiction was not, therefore, limited to 12 nautical miles.” The court also said that under SUA, Kerala had jurisdiction up to 200 nautical miles from the coast.

On January 18, 2013, following an appeal by the marines, the Supreme Court held that “the Centre, and not Kerala, had jurisdiction beyond territorial waters, and Kerala Police and the trial court did not have jurisdiction in the case”. It directed the setting up of a special court in Delhi to try the case, and allowed the marines to challenge India’s jurisdiction over the matter in that court.

The special court was set up and hearings were about to begin on July 31, 2013, but the then government had dropped the charge under SUA. In September 2013, the Supreme Court had allowed Latorre to go to Italy for treatment for four months. Later, his leave was extended repeatedly by the apex Court.

On February 22, 2013, the Supreme Court allowed Latorre and Girone to visit Italy to vote in the February 24-25 elections. On March 11, however, Italy refused to send them back, triggering a crisis. Later on March 21, Italy had agreed to send the marines back. On February 18, 2014, it complained about “unacceptable delay by the Indian Supreme Court” and the “ambiguous and unreliable” behaviour by India.

The case later was shifted to an international tribunal. On June 26, 2015, Italy instituted proceedings against India before an arbitral tribunal to be constituted under Annex VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law (UNCLOS). UNCLOS is an ‘international agreement that defines the rights and responsibilities of nations with regard to their conduct and use of world seas and oceans and management of marine natural resources’.

The current prime minister, who was in the Opposition till 2014, had claimed to be very furious about the killings of the Indian fishermen. Interestingly, now the Modi-led government has decided to file an affidavit in the Supreme Court to withdraw the case.

(With Inputs from PTI)