New Delhi (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Murder and violation of the law on the suppression of unlawful acts against the safety of maritime navigation: these are the formal charges presented by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the First Information Report (FIR) against the Italian Marines Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, charged with the murder of two Indian fishermen off the coast of Kerala. Both charges can carry the death penalty, but sources in the Ministry of Interior specify that the federal agency is not aiming for the death sentence. "It is entirely possible - said an official - that the charges will be downgraded or completely dropped, depending on the evidence that NIA gathers in its investigations."
In short, the Fusiliers from the San Marco Battalion are being charged under sections 302 (murder), 427 (damage) and 34 (voluntary act) of the Indian Penal Code. In addition, the NIA reported the violation of the section. 3 (offenses against ships and fixed platforms, loading, navigation services) of the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against Safety of Maritime Navigation and Fixed Platforms on Continetal Shelf Act - SUA. In the case of murder of a person, this section carries the death penalty.
The use of section 3 of SUA and art. 302 of the Penal Code seems to go against the "guarantees" that India had given Italy on the non-applicability of the death penalty in the case of the two sailors. Guarantees Rome claimed were "written", but which New Delhi has always referred to as mere "clarifications". However, to calm tensions, Indian analysts point out that the FIR presented by NIA is a simple reproduction of the one presented last year by the police of Kerala. "At the moment - said an official of the Agency - the only facts known are those from investigations carried out by police in Kerala." The official added that without the presence of SUA among the charges, the Agency would not have the authority to investigate the matter.
The NIA is a federal agency created by the central government after the Mumbai attacks (2008), to deal with crimes against national security. The Indian Ministry of the Interior ordered the transfer of the marines' case to NIA April 1 last year.