In a historic award, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) situated in Hague has found that India cannot exercise its jurisdiction to try the two Italian marines. On 15th February 2012 two Italian marines, Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone fired shots from an Italian vessel, Enrica Lexie which killed two Indian fishermen on-board an Indian ship, St. Anthony. These two marines were taken into custody by Indian Navy and then held them in custody till the Supreme Court of India ordered India to let the two marines go back to their nation.
The PCA in a majority of three is to two found that the jurisdiction to try these two fishermen precluded India. The PCA also notably did not find India’s counter-claims to be valid and rejected the same. Surprisingly, the PCA held that the two marines were entitled to immunity.
The PCA further held that Italy had breached United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) by intercepting the Indian vessel’s route and held that India is entitled to payment of compensation for the loss of lives of two fishermen and the physical and mental harm suffered by the crew on the vessel. The PCA further held India’s conduct not in breach of UNCLOS and that it was right to take into custody the two Italian marines.
The arbitration hearing was in regards to which of the two countries had the right to exercise jurisdiction to try the two marines. The two marines were set free by the Indian Government after an order dated 26th May 2016 passed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court demanded that the two marines must return to Italy but only if the marines agree to the conditions imposed by the Supreme Court of India.
The PCA bench was a five bench tribunal which was headed by President, Judge Vladimir Golitsyn and consisted of Judges Jin-Hyun Paik and Patrick Robinson, Professor Francesco Francioni, and Dr Pemmaraju Sreenivasa Rao.