Enrica-Lexie Case: Supreme Court to Hear Centre's Plea to Close Pending Applications on April 9

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear on Friday, April 9, the interim application filed by the Union of India in the matter of two Italian Marines, Salvatore Girone and Massimiliano Latorre, onboard the MV Enrica Lexie - an Italian flagged oil tanker accused of killing two Indian fishermen off the Kerala Coast in February 2012. 

The Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who mentioned the matter for urgent listing informed the bench of Chief Justice Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian that on the last occasion the court asked the Centre to contact the family of the victims. Further, he stated that the matter was urgent considering it was between the Indian and Italian Government.

In August 2020, the Supreme Court had refused to close the pending cases against two Italian marines, accused of killing two Indian fishermen, without hearing the families of the victims. The Court had directed the Centre to implead the victims and stated they should be given adequate compensation. The Supreme Court appreciates the steps that Italy took to prosecute these marines yet the court was concerned with the adequate compensation to victims' family.

On 15th February 2012, ‘St. Antony’, the fishing boat sailed from Neendakara harbour in Kollam district in Kerala and at a distance of about 20.5 nautical miles from the coastline, it passed the ‘Enrica Lexie’, the tanker with the Italian Flag. The fishing boat was mistaken for a pirate boat and Massimilano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, the two marines aboard the ship opened fire at it because of which the two fishermen named Valentine Jalastine and Ajesh Binki died. After 38 miles from the High Seas, the ship received a message from the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, Mumbai, asking it to come back to the Cochin Port to assist with the incident. 

The complaint against the marines was lodged by Freddy. He is the owner of the ‘St. Antony’ fishing boat.