ROME: Italy accused India on Monday of violating international law on diplomatic immunity by preventing its ambassador from leaving the country, in an escalating row over two marines who skipped bail while on trial for murder in New Delhi.
The Indian Supreme Court last week ordered the Italian ambassador Daniele Mancini not to leave the country after Rome’s refusal to send back two marines charged with the murder of two Indian fishermen in Kerala last year
Likewise, on Monday India’s top judge, Chief Justice Altamas Kabir said that Italy’s ambassador Daniele Mancini had forfeited his diplomatic immunity over his role in securing the release of the marines.
The restrictions on Italy’s ambassador which prevents him from leaving the country without the court’s permission were an “evident violation” of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which specifies diplomats’ rights to safe passage and legal immunity, the Italian foreign ministry said in a statement.
“Italy continues to believe that the case of its two marines should be resolved according to international law,” it said, adding that it “wants to keep friendly relations” with India.
Indian government allowed Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone to return home in February to vote in national elections and to celebrate Easter. However, last week Italy informed India that the marines would not be coming back to face trial as promised, leading to a diplomatic row between the two countries.
Kabir said Mancini, who had negotiated the Italians’ release last month so they could vote in an election, had waived his immunity by giving an undertaking to a court that the pair would return.
The marines are accused of shooting dead two fishermen off India’s southwest coast in February last year, when a fishing boat sailed close to the Italian oil tanker they were guarding. They say they mistook the fishermen for pirates.
DND
