Foreign minister sees ‘positive, acceptable’ end to affair
London, May 7 – Foreign Minister Emma Bonino on Tuesday said she hoped the case of two Italian marines awaiting trial in India for allegedly killing two Indian fishermen would reach a “fair, positive and acceptable solution.” It was new minister Bonino’s second statement on the drawn-out affair, which has put Italy and India at loggerheads, on her first trip outside Italy, to a Somalia conference in London.
On April 29, after being sworn in in Enrico Letta’s right-left government, she said she was certain an agreement would be found for the two anti-piracy marines, Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone. “India is a great country, and one of rights. Our countries need to listen to each other,” she said,. Latorre and Girone face charges of shooting and killing Valentine (aka Gelastine) and Ajesh Binki after allegedly mistaking them for pirates while guarding a merchant ship off the Kerala coast in February 2012. The two countries have been in a diplomatic impasse and relations have been tense since the incident. Italy has contested India’s claim that it has jurisdiction over the case, arguing that the deaths occurred in international waters. But Rome agreed to send the pair back to India after home leave to vote when India said they would not face the death penalty. At the height of the spat, when Italy reneged on a pledge to return the marines, India stopped the Italian ambassador leaving the country and the BRICS nations were said to be considering sanctions. Italy’s then foreign minister, Giulio Terzi, quit after the decision to send Latorre and Girone back, saying his views had been discounted.
Via: http://www.gazzettadelsud.it/
