Italians in Kerala shooting case denied bail

Thiruvananthapuram: A Kerala court yesterday denied bail to the two Italian marines who are facing the charge of shooting dead two Indian fishermen off Kerala's coast.

Accepting the apprehension of the prosecution that the marines — Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone — may flee the country and try to influence the witness, if bail is granted, P.D. Rajan, Kollam sessions court judge denied them bail.

The judge, however, called for a speedy trial in order to deliver justice in the case.

Ambassador recalled

The move came a day after murder charges were filed against the marines at the court and Rome recalled its Indian Ambassador for "consultations" over the case. Italy still sticks to its stand that the incident took place in international waters and marines did mistake the fishermen for pirates.

The marines were deployed as guards on an Italian oil tanker when they shot dead the two fishermen on February 15. Since then they are under arrest and have been lodged at the Central prison in Thiruvananthapuram.

The Kerala state has denied the request of Italy to shift them to a place where there are more modern facilities like air-conditioner. The state said that it could ensure the safety of them only at the prison. Disposing a petition filed by Italy in this regard, the Supreme Court had directed the State to take appropriate decision.

Special Investigation Team on Friday submitted charges running into 196 pages before the Kollam Chief Judicial Magistrate Court.

The charges levelled against the marines include: Section 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 427 (mischief causing damage), and supporting documents, 46 material objects and 60 witnesses.

Supporting documents

In the charges, the probing agency corroborates that the bullets fired by the first accused Latorre Massimiliano and second accused Salvatore Girone killed the two fishermen, Valentine Jelestine and Ajeesh Pink.

The supporting documents include the report of the ballistic examination of the weapons seized from the ship at Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), which identifies the two Beretta rifles used for the murder.

The probe team states that documents seized from the ship and witnesses (other marines and ship crew) confirmed that the two rifles were used by the accused marines and they had fired at the victims' boat.