Government hopes marines can stay in Italy during arbitration

Italy's foreign minister Paolo Gentiloni said Wednesday the government hoped that two Italian marines facing a murder trial in India over the killing of two fisherman could stay in Italy during international arbitration of the case.

"Arbitration takes as long as it takes. We hope that during this period, the two marines can stay in Italy," Gentiloni stated.

"The request is that the marines can remain in Italy for the arbitration period," Gentiloni stressed.

Gentiloni's remarks came after a court in the Hague said the arbitration verdict in the case of Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone would not come before August 2018.

Italy must file a written statement of its version of events by 16 September this year and India must do the same by 31 March, 2017, the Hague court said.

The Hague tribunal is due in late March give an initial response to the request to allow Salvatore Girone to return to Italy from India until the arbitration concludes, Gentiloni said.

India's Supreme Court allowed Latorre to return home for medical treatment after he suffered a stroke in August and last week ruled he could stay until 30 April, prompting a statement from the Italian foreign ministry claiming the court did not have jurisdiction over the marine.

The shooting dead in February 2012 of two unarmed fisherman by Latorre and Girone off the southern state of Kerala as they guarded an Italian oil tanker sparked a diplomatic incident and the case has strained relations between the two countries.

A long series of delays and fears the marines could be executed if convicted of murder prompted Italy to take the case to international arbitration in June last year. Last August, the Hamburg-based International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea ruled India had no jurisdiction in the case and referred it to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

India wants to try Latorre and Girone for murder, while Italy has argued from the outset that incident took place in international waters during an anti-piracy mission meaning India does not have jurisdiction in the case.

Meanwhile, Girone has not been allowed to leave India and is staying at the Italian embassy in New Delhi.