Italian Marines Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone left the prison in Trivandrum today for the Borstal School in Kochi, their new residence as they await developments in their trial, according to an ANSA news agency report informed by the Italian delegation. The two marines stopped off in Kollam during the transfer, where examining magistrate A.K. Gopakumar formally registered the dossier containing the charges against them, ordering a new period of judiciary detention.
At the Borstal School, a former reformatory now used for offices and designated as a “guest facility” of the Trivandrum prison, Latorre and Girone will be housed in two separate rooms, the Italian source informed, and will have an area where they will be able to get physical exercise. “As promised”, it concluded, “the Kerala authorities have completed the necessary modifications and are now ready to receive the two men”.
A highly negative episode that has damaged counter-piracy efforts
The two San Marco sharpshooters’ transfer from the prison is the result of acceleration over recent days of the Italian foreign ministry’s diplomatic efforts that included the recall to Rome of Ambassador to India Giacomo Sanfelice, the summoning of the Indian ambassador in Rome and meetings between Minister Terzi with top UN officials in New York.
Speaking from New York, Terzi reiterated that the entire affair was “a highly negative episode that has produced damage to the international counter-piracy efforts, that I hope is not irreversible”. Meeting with UNSG Ban Ki-moon and UNGA President Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser in New York, the minister stated that he had “noted the marked concern even of those prominent interlocutors”, and Ban in particular, who “appeared objectively surprised that this affair had not yet been able to be resolved favourably”.
