Trivandrum (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Murder and attempted murder: these are
the accusations presented today by the police to the Kochi court in Kerala
against the Italian Marines Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, investigated
for the killing of two Indian fishermen, 15 last February. The
documents arrived 89 days after the arrest of the San Marco Battalion of
Fusiliers, on February 19 last, and just in time for the deadline of 90 days of
judicial custody. Once
past this period, bail can be granted. Meanwhile,
the Marines are expected to be transferred from prison in the next 20 days to
another structure, probably a guest house.
The incident
occurred off the coast of Kerala. The
two soldiers were on board the Italian tanker Enrica Lexie as security guards,
and fired on an Indian vessel mistaking it for pirates. The
two victims were Jelestein, 45, and Binki Ajesh, 25.
Originally,
the Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by the Commissioner of Police MR
Ajith Kumar had filed documents containing various charges, according to art. 302
(murder), 307 (attempted murder), 427 (dangerous behavior that causes damage)
and 34 (criminal conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code. The court has admitted,
however, only the first two.
In
addition, in the documents the SIT indicates that the accident took place 22
nautical miles off the coast of Neendakara, the so-called "contiguous
zone". This
differs from the original findings contained in the First Information Report
(FIR), which stated the episode took place 33 miles from the Indian coast in
international waters.
On
25 April, the family have reached an extrajudicial agreement with the Italian
government, which provided for compensation of 10 million rupees (about 145
thousand euros) each, in exchange for withdrawal from civil cases in which were
shown as the injured party.