Girone can return to the country. Indian Supreme Court ruling

(B2) Good news. India's Supreme Court ruled on Thursday (May 26) to allow the last Maro (Marine) held in India, Salvatore Girone, to return to Italy.

• However, he remains accused - like his college Maximilian Latorre - to have killed (accidentally) in February 2012 two Indian fishermen, taking them for pirates, while they were embarked on the Italian ship MT Enrica Lexie

Satisfaction in Rome

For the Italians, this decision is a " great satisfaction "as successively affirmed on twitter the Italian Chief of Staff, General Claudio Graziano, and the Minister of Defence, Roberta Pinotti. « I got it on the phone. Nwe are happy and satisfied ».

A return that is not without conditions

Lhe court asked the Italian ambassador to India to make a commitment that Girone would return to India for his trial, " When the time comes ", as indicated by the Times Of India. The Court also ordered the person concerned not to attempt to influence witnesses » and not « not destroy evidence" when he returned to Italy.  NB: The other marine, also charged, Massimiliano Latorre, had been authorized to return to his country for health reasons until the end of April. Authorization then extended on April 13 until September 30.

Not the end of the matter

This release is not, however, the epilogue of this story that has poisoned relations between Rome and New Delhi since 2012.. A procedure international arbitration was initiated on June 26, 2015, at the Court of the Law of the Sea in Hamburg. The international tribunal must now decide whether India or Italy has jurisdiction to judge this case. From the outset, the dispute focused on the actual location of the incident. He had already ordered, last August, in an interim measure pronounced by ordinance, to suspend all the legal proceedings initiated (1).

(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)

(1) download theorder of August 24, 2015

updated May 29 with the sailor's return photos

A case that B2 has followed from the start. Read also:

• The file of the two marines remains a point of tension between the EU and India
• The death penalty for Italian marines in India?
• Italian flip-flop. The Maros return to India
• The EU is raising its voice. India reminded of its international obligations
• Dialogue of the deaf between New Delhi and Rome (update)
• The marines make the beautiful ... A return to the country "on instruction"
• Good Italian-Indian understanding
• Exit permits for Girona and Latore
• The 2 Italian marines free of their movements in India (Maj)
• The liberated Enrica Lexie
• Supreme Court examines fate of Italian Marines in India
• The Enrica Lexie, held in seizure
• The issue of VPDs, is it urgent to regulate?
• Italian soldiers imprisoned in India: the EU ready to help for a solution
• Off India, the blunder turns into a diplomatic incident