The Enrica Lexie case was an international controversy about a shooting in international waters off the western coast of India. On 15 February 2012, two Indian fishermen were killed off the coast of Kerala, India, aboard St. Antony. India alleged that two Italian marines aboard the Italian-flagged commercial oil tanker MV had killed the fishermen. Shortly after the incident, the Indian Navy intercepted Enrica Lexie and detained the two Italian marines, which sparked a conflict over legal jurisdiction and functional immunity between the governments of India and Italy.
Both marines were released and returned to Italy after they were detained in India without being formally charged for any crime for two and four years, respectively. Meanwhile, an independent United Nations court was charged to resolve the jurisdictional conflict. That was following a European Parliament resolution of January 2015, stating that "no charge has been brought by the Indian authorities" and that the "Italian marines' detention without charge is a serious breach of their human rights".
On 2 July 2020, the Permanent Court of Arbitration recognized the functional immunity of the two Italian marines, noting that they were engaged in a mission on behalf of the Italian government, and thus ruled that the process should continue in Italy. Italy was required to agree with India on compensation for the deaths and for the physical and moral damage to the crew members and the vessel. On 31 January 2022, the Judge for Preliminary Investigations of the Tribunal of Rome dismissed all accusations against Latorre and Girone, arguing that they opened fire because they believed themselves to be in the presence of pirates. The incident drew attention to the practice of commercial shipping using armed guards.
History On 15 February 2012, Indian nationals Ajesh Binki and Jelestein aboard St. Antony were killed allegedly as a result of gunshot wounds following a confrontation with Enrica Lexie in international waters, off the Indian coast. The nature of the confrontation has been in contention. MV Enrica Lexie was travelling from Singapore to Egypt with a crew of 34, including 19 Indians, accompanied by six Italian Navy marines. The captain of St. Antony, Freddie Louis, claimed that his vessel was returning from its fishing expedition in the Laccadive Sea when men on board Enrica Lexie began firing at them without provocation for approximately two minutes. According to the Indian Coast Guard and the crew of St. Antony, the incident occurred at about 16:30 IST on 15 February 2012 when St. Antony was some off the Indian coast within the Contiguous Zone (CZ) area of India's exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
After the incident, Enrica Lexie was intercepted in the Lakshadweep archipelago and compelled to proceed to Kochi port by the Indian Coast Guard. The Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi, in an open letter to the Italian newspaper Eco di Bergamo, alleged that "the entering of the Enrica Lexie into Indian waters has been the result of a subterfuge by the local police, who required the ship master to head for the port of Kochi in order to contribute to the identification of some suspected pirates." On 30 March 2013, Indian Foreign minister Salman Khurshid rejected claims of subterfuge as unsubstantiated.
Two Italian special corps Marines, Capo di 1ª Classe Massimiliano Latorre and Secondo Capo Salvatore Girone, were remanded to judicial custody for interrogation on charges of homicide under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code. Based on the postmortem carried out on 16 February 2012, Kerala Police charged the two marines with murder. K. Sasikala from Thiruvananthapuram's forensic medicine institute extracted two projectiles during the autopsy but measured only the length, not their caliber which did not match their 5.56 Beretta. The two marines were allowed to return to Italy in early 2013 on temporary leave. Once the marines landed in Italy, Italian authorities notified India they would not return the marines unless there was a guarantee they would not face the death penalty. India responded by summoning the Italian ambassador to Delhi for negotiations. As the two had been allowed to go home for Christmas due to a personal undertaking from the Italian ambassador it was made clear to the ambassador that personal undertakings are not covered under diplomatic immunity and as such if the two did not return, the ambassador was liable to be charged with fraud. After tense discussions, the two marines were returned, without any of the guarantees requested by Italy. This caused Terzi to resign, in defense of "honor of the country, of the armed forces, and Italian diplomacy". On 4 April 2013, the Indian National Investigation Agency (NIA) filed a first information report against the marines in relation to charges including murder, attempted murder, mischief, and conspiracy.
In June 2013, Italian media reported that four other members of the VPD team were not in the ship's citadel after the general alarm was sounded and speculated that the two marines held in India might have taken responsibility for the actions of other members of the VPD team.
In January 2014, India decided to prosecute the marines under the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Maritime Navigation (SUA). The SUA Convention was passed in 1988 with the goal of suppressing international terrorism. Italy criticised the prosecution pursuant to the SUA Convention as equating the incident to an act of terrorism. On 7 March 2014, India dropped the SUA charges against the marines. On 7 February 2014, the charges were downgraded from murder to violence, meaning the marines would not face the death penalty if convicted.
Italian authorities maintained that India lacked jurisdiction in judging the case, since, based on the Enrica Lexie positional records, the ship was outside Indian territorial waters, in the international navigation area. Furthermore, they maintained that India lacked jurisdiction for arresting the marines, since they were on an Italian ship in international waters, charged with security duties. As such, they were military personnel on duty in defense of a part of Italy's national territory, and could not be considered terrorists or accused of murder. India countered that if the marines were on military duty and had killed unarmed civilians, they could be charged with war crimes under the Geneva convention, thus murder was the lesser charge.
Indian authorities delayed the formalization of accusations, thus stemming the reaction from Italian authorities, who sought support from the European Parliament. The latter decided to back Italy, with special reference to the lack of any formal accusation to justify the detention. In January 2015 the European Parliament issued an official resolution, according to which the human rights of the marines were violated. That month, Latorre underwent heart surgery in Italy after he was allowed to repatriate for medical reasons.
Alleged piracy threat
The western Indian coast forms part of the "High Risk Area" for pirate attacks. On 21 February 2012, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) reported that a Greek-flagged tanker, Olympic Flair, sailing some from the port of Kochi was attacked on the same day of the Enrica Lexie incident. The ICC—in a communication to the Italian Navy—confirmed the IMO number of the vessel, confirming it was indeed Olympic Flair.
The Indian Coast Guard stated that while it was accepted procedure to report piracy events or suspicious activities immediately to Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC), Enrica Lexie continued sailing for on its route to Egypt without reporting the incident. The ship reported the shooting only when contacted by the Coast Guard about two and a half hours later, after which they were asked to proceed to Kochi.
Umberto Vitelli, master of Enrica Lexie, responded to Indian investigators that he was surprised by the marines' decision to open fire and that it was only after he heard gunshots that he increased to full speed and sounded the foghorn and the general alarm. In addition, the ship's chief officer James Mandley Samson stated to Kerala police that despite having binoculars "I couldn't see any person with weapons in the boat". Depositions given by the marines to Indian investigators regarding the use of live fire in the direction of an approaching fishing boat stated that Latorre fired twelve rounds of ammunition and Girone fired eight in two bursts as warning shots.
Italian news agencies quoted Vice-Captain Charles Noviello as saying: "I'm sure the boat that came close was not the St. Antony. They do not match some details of the vessel I have seen and what I have been shown in the picture of the officials of the Indian Merchant Navy." In a telephone interview with Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (ANSA), he added "I remember the cabin, where there was the helm, was of a different color from what I saw later in the picture." Noviello, who was present at the time when Latorre and Girone opened fire, added: "none of the people on the boat fell to the ground ... the boat was 40–50 meters from the tanker ... I saw that there were 5 or 6 people on board, but I'm not sure if it was more."
In the marines' affidavit that urging the Kerala High Court to quash the First Information Report (FIR) against them, the document states: "The master of the vessel increased the speed of the ship to 14 knots (about 28 km/per hour) and reduced the speed to 13 knots once the piracy attack was averted. The master also activated the Ship Security Alert System (SSAS) which sent out signals to the Italian Maritime Rescue and Coordination Centre (MRCC). The master also reported the incident on the mercury chart which links together and transfers information to the community including several navies across the world fighting piracy, including to the Indian Navy headquarters. The 'Military Report' was also done. A report was sent to at UK. Since the attempted attack was averted, the vessel continued on its scheduled course of journey." No documentary evidence was supplied in support of the affidavit.
Italian investigations On 26 February 2012, a five-member team of Italian naval officials examined the St. Antony berthed at Neendakara harbour. The Italian team consisted of Major General Paolo Romano, Admiral Alessandro Piroli, Major Luca Flebus, Major Paolo Fratini and Commander Geam Paul. In March 2012, Italian prosecutors opened an investigation into potential criminal negligence by the marines. On 10 May 2012, the four other members of the VPD team reportedly told prosecutors that they did not witness the shooting. Whilst in Italy for the Christmas holiday Latorre and Girone were interviewed by prosecutors. In addition, the marines appeared before a military tribunal in Rome in March 2013.
On 6 April 2013, an Italian military report on the incident, dated 11 May 2012, was leaked. The document reported that, according to Indian authorities, St. Antony had been involved in the incident, but that bullets used in the incident were fired from rifles assigned to two other marines.
On 31 January 2022, the Judge for Preliminary Investigations of the Tribunal of Rome dismissed all accusations against Latorre and Girone, arguing that they opened fire because they believed themselves to be in the presence of pirates.
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