Italy slaps Indian Supreme Court over marines

India and Italy were headed for a full diplomatic standoff after Rome announced that two of its naval guards — on trial in India for killing two Indian fishermen — would not be coming back.

The marines, Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, were on anti-piracy duty aboard an Italian oil tanker in February 2012 when they opened fire on a fishing boat off the Kerala coast, killing two fishermen. India arrested and charged them; Italy argued the shooting happened in international waters and that India had no jurisdiction.

The immediate trigger: India's Supreme Court had allowed the two men to travel home to vote in Italy's elections, on Rome's written undertaking that they would return. Days later, Italy's foreign ministry said they would not return at all, citing a formal dispute between the two countries over the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and complaining that India had not engaged with its requests for a diplomatic solution.

New Delhi's response was curt. Sources in the external affairs ministry said the communication had arrived late at night and would be "examined carefully" — diplomatic language for fury.

The episode was especially raw because the court had already shown the men unusual leniency: a two-week Christmas home visit cleared by the Kerala High Court, then the voting trip. The bench had simultaneously pulled up the central government for dragging its feet on setting up the special court ordered in January, which had ruled Kerala had no jurisdiction and directed a fresh trial under a court constituted with the Chief Justice of India.

India eventually got the marines back after sustained pressure, and the case dragged on for years before going to international arbitration. But the week Rome refused to honor its own undertaking remains one of the sharper moments in recent India-Italy relations — a reminder that diplomatic promises are only as good as the politics behind them.