On Monday, a U.N. court based in Germany asked Italy and India to suspend all court proceedings against two Italian marines accused of killing two fishermen off the South India coast in 2012.
The president of Hamburg-headquartered International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), Judge Vladimir Golitsyn, asked the two countries to submit the initial report in the entire incident by September 24.
"India shall both suspend all court proceedings and shall refrain from initiating new ones which might aggravate or extend the dispute submitted to the Annex VII arbitral tribunal or might jeopardize or prejudice the carrying out of any decision which the arbitral tribunal may render," Judge Vladimir Golitsyn said in his verdict on the deadly 2012 maritime incident that sparked a diplomatic dispute between India and Italy, according to The Hindu.
"Italy and India shall each submit to the Tribunal the initial report...not later than 24 September 2015, and authorises the President, after that date, to request such information from the Parties as he may consider appropriate," Golitsyn further said, according to India TV.
The Italian marines -- Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone - were part of an anti-piracy mission when they allegedly shot dead two Indian fishermen off the Kerala coast on February 15, 2012, according to The Statesman.
India detained the marines days later and a court case is pending. Italy, however, insists that the killing took place in the international water and the fishermen were mistaken for pirates, according to Manorama online.
"It is not accepted that the fatal shooting took place from the Enrica Lexie. There were other vessels in the area at the time and other reports of pirate attacks," Italy's counsel Daniel Bethlehem had said, according to Hindustan Times.
Italy had approached the tribunal last month to challenge India's jurisdiction to try its marines. Massimiliano Latorre is currently in Italy and Salvatore Girone is living in the Italian embassy in New Delhi.
