INDIAN police took two Italians into custody yesterday after two fishermen were allegedly mistaken for pirates and shot dead from an Italian oil tanker.
But Rome warned that the two were soldiers who enjoyed immunity as they were on the vessel as representatives of Italy, and that only an Italian court was competent to rule on the case.
The incident off Kerala on Wednesday (February 15) saw the fishermen gunned down in an incident that Indian authorities said would have been avoided if the vessel’s armed guards had “exercised restraint”.
Italian officials have said the Indian fishing boat had behaved aggressively and was repeatedly warned by officers on board the Enrica Lexie before the guards opened fire.
On Sunday (February 19), Italy’s foreign ministry said: “The Italian government believes that it is the Italian judiciary that is competent, given that the acts that happened in international waters onboard a ship flying the Italian flag.”
“The presence of soldiers on board merchant ships are controlled by an Italian law that specifically responds to United Nations’ requirements on fighting piracy,” it added.
“In this context, the soldiers are representatives of the Italian state and therefore enjoy jurisdiction immunity vis a vis foreign states,” said the ministry.
A team of experts dispatched by Rome arrived in Kerala yesterday, but a meeting with Indian officials “did not manage to reach a common position,” said the ministry.
“Contacts and collaboration between the two governments are considered essential in order to establish the facts, given the unilateral acts being taken by” Indian police, it stressed.
Ships are increasingly employing armed guards for protection off the coast of Somalia and across the Indian Ocean where vessels of all sizes have been seized by pirates, who often secure huge ransoms for the crews’ safe release.
But the Italian statement described the men as soldiers.
The two Italians were taken off the Enrica Lexie in Cochin port on Sunday.
“Police took the two men into custody and they are being questioned,” M R Ajithkumar, Cochin city police commissioner, told reporters. “They will be arrested and produced before the courts.”
The 58,000-tonne tanker was on its way from Singapore to Egypt when the shooting occurred.
Various media reports have said the motorised fishing boat, which had 11 men on board, was between 14 and 40 miles (22 and 65 kilometres) off the coast when it was fired on.
The boat had sailed to trawl for tuna on February 7 and was heading home on Wednesday.
On Saturday (February 18), Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna told his Italian counterpart in a telephone conservation that the fishermen were unarmed and posed no threat to any ship.
