HC trashes Italian Marines plea to quash FIR

KOCHI: In a setback to Italy’s move to release the marines arrested in the Enrica Lexie case, the Kerala High Court on Tuesday dismissed the marines’ petition seeking to quash the FIR against them and slapped a cost of Rs 1 lakh each on them. The court directed Italian Consul-General Giampaolo Cuttillo to deposit the amount within two weeks.Dismissing the petition by marines chief master sergeant Massimiliano Latorre and sergeant Salvatore Girone, the court observed that shooting down two unarmed fishermen was a brutal murder without provocation. The court found that the marines are liable to penal jurisdiction before the Indian courts. The state police have the right to register the case since the incident occurred in the territorial waters falling within India’s Exclusive Economic Zone or Contiguous Zone (EEZ/CZ) making the Indian penal laws applicable as an area beyond and adjacent to territorial waters to a distance of 24 NM from the nearest point of the baseline, while EEZ included up to a limit of 200 NM, the court pointed out.  In the light of notification by the Ministry of Home Affairs on August 1981, Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Criminal procedure code (CrPC) have been made applicable to the incident that happened in EEZ area. Appearing for the state, Advocate-General K P Dandapani submitted that the marines are liable to be prosecuted according to section 3 of the SUA Act. The court said that the marines would come within the term ‘any person liable’ and the SUA Act would come within the term ‘any Indian Law to be tried for an offence’ as mentioned in section 3. However, it was up to the Centre to issue notification authorising any police officer to register a case under SUA Act.Coming down heavily on Italy, the court observed that the Republic of Italy has come to the court without any bona fides.