At an institutional level, it is still recommended to postpone the identification of any errors committed in the management of the affair until after the return to Italy of Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone.
However, initiatives are already under way to clarify the matter.
The political party Brothers of Italy has filed the request for the establishment of a commission of inquiry that clarifies the government responsibilities around the case and the initiative seems to be repeated also by the 5 Star Movement.
The exhortation to wait is therefore no longer acceptable. Too much time has passed and clarity is an obligation that any democracy can not deny to its citizens and, in this case, it would not even involve the Indian counterpart that could feel "annoyed" by the Italian action.
From the very first moment, the whole affair was characterized by lack of transparency and after March 22, 2013 it fell into the worst obscurantism after the two marines were sent back to India.
An example among all the 8 months that passed before the then defense minister admitted in parliament that the defense had given the consent for a landing of the Enrica Lexie on the port of Koci.
Because time does not cancel the memory it is appropriate to fix the "posts" around which the whole affair is rotated and start to understand who it is because it has decided certain actions. Only in this way Italy will be able to quickly regain the international consensus necessary to reappropriate the right to judge its own soldiers and bring them back home immediately.
Retrace the diary backwards, starting from recent events that have often confirmed many of the doubts that have emerged in these two years.
The Indian Supreme Court ruled on an appeal by Latorre and Girone, against the entrusting of the investigations to the NIA, presented as individual legal entities and not as an Italian state. The two soldiers exercised their right which certainly does not weaken the Italian position in matters of jurisdiction. In this regard, however, it must be clarified who in a previous hearing decided to establish the Italian state in an Indian trial. He has serious responsibilities because the act could lead to a weakening of the Italian position in terms of jurisdiction, also due to the visibility given to the decision with the presence in the Chamber of an official representative of the government, Dr. Staffan de Mistura. Because Italy has not yet started the international arbitration that India certainly does not want, knowing full well what the arbitration conclusions would be after the sentence of the Indian High Court of 18 January 2013. Because it was decided to send the two soldiers back to Delhi despite that they were at risk of a judgment that could include the death penalty and an Indian declaration of non-applicability of the same was accepted, absolutely irrelevant on the Italian legal level (Sentence of the Italian Supreme Court No. 223 of 27 June 1996). All in the absence of a decision by an Italian court (Sentence no. 40283 of 10 October 2008). While respecting the absolute decision-making freedom of the Public Prosecutor's Office, why, despite the fact that Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone were under investigation for voluntary murder, no restrictive measure was adopted against them, first of all the possibility of expatriation, renunciation that in fact gave priority and priority to undue Indian legal action. Who decided on the "compensation for humanitarian purposes" of the families of the two poor dead fishermen, giving 145.000 euros? A recognition of responsibility and not a simple "act of generosity" as specified at the time by the former defense minister Di Paola. An agreement reached in April 2012 by the head of the cabinet of the Italian defense ministry after having negotiated it with Indian lawyers. Negotiations had been underway for several days with Italian negotiators as protagonists coordinated by the defense minister, Giampaolo di Paola, and the lawyers of the families of the two killed fishermen. In those days, the Times of India spoke of a first offer of compensation of 7 million rupees (approximately 102 thousand euros) immediately rejected, and then reached an agreement of 10 million rupees to each of the parties. A gift defined as an act of generosity, but in fact looking for a counterpart considering that according to the Cnn-Ibn television network and online newspaper The First Post, the Italian government immediately turned to the local Supreme Court requesting the revocation of the murder complaint formalized by the Indian police against the two Navy riflemen and asking to have functional immunity recognized. An attempt failed as the facts have shown and which raises perplexity as to the reasons that at the time recommended it. It is not clear who authorized the payment of almost 150.000 euros certainly not attributable to the chapters of the current management of the state administration nor of the defense. In fact, does it not appear that expenditure items titled "compensation for humanitarian purposes" or "for humanitarian acts" are envisaged? Nor is it conceivable that the figure was accounted for in the current management of the defense, justified by a device that stated the real reasons. Therefore, an “extra-budgetary management” could only have been carried out, of which the prime minister could not be unaware. Perhaps “reserved” funds with separate accounting, which someone should be accountable for, also considering the poor results obtained. How come for two years he continued to manage the negotiations with India, Dr. de Mistura, who as Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs declared on May 18, 2012 to the Indian press: “The death of the two fishermen was a fortuitous accident, a manslaughter. Our marines never wanted this to happen, but unfortunately it did ”. An admission of guilt that, combined with the "act of generosity" of the former minister Di Paola, certainly did not put the government commissioner in the best conditions in mediating with his Indian counterpart. Elements that could emerge at future hearings if Italy does not quickly obtain the due international support to remove the two Navy riflemen from Indian justice.
Points to keep in mind at a time when, moreover, news from India is not very reassuring for our children.
The first that the Indian special court, after noting the suspension of the criminal proceedings decided three days ago by the Supreme Court, seems to have set the hearing on July 31, after the local elections. The second piece of news certainly more worrying is that reported by ANSA in Delhi which reports that the premier of the Indian nationalist party Narendra Modi attacks Sonia Gandhi on the rifle affair and asks why they are not in prison. Modi made fun of Sonia's Italian origins and, as the Hindustan Times reports, said: "Mrs. Sonia, since you have contested our patriotism, we want to know in which prison the two '' Italian maros are being held".
The story in India, contrary to the expectations of the most optimistic, is complicated. At this point it would be essential for the head of state to hear his voice, to tell the truth in these months 24 very hesitant in the specific.
There is disappointment, in fact, among many Italian citizens for the almost detached tone with which the President of the Republic, wanted by the Constitution as the “Supreme Head of the Armed Forces”, addressed the affair. Apart, in fact, formal details such as the receptions at the Quirinale of the two marines or words of circumstance for the families, nothing else of incisive emerged in the action of the head of state.
Personally, as a man who believes in the state and in the obligations induced by being a commander, I would have liked, instead, a greater presence of President Napolitano, in particular in drawing the attention of the international world to the matter.
Surely, and I would not allow myself to question what the Quirinale reports, the attention of the head of state will have been and is constant and continuous, but perhaps there was no evidence of an action that he had obtained to return to Italy the rights that belong to you as sovereign state.
President, the news just arrived from India does not reassure. Our soldiers could be locked up in jails awaiting trial if, after the words of Modi, the request by the public prosecutor to remove the judicial custody of the Italian embassy and to assign it to the court would be dusted off and accepted by the judge of the Supreme Court.
Any delay, therefore, could be fatal for our boys.
Fernando Termentini
