Thaindian News

Kollam (Kerala), Feb 23 (IANS) A court here Thursday extended the police custody of the two Italian Marines arrested for killing two Indian fishermen by one more week till March 1.

The chief judicial magistrate, however, consented to a request from the Italians’ counsel that Italian officials should be present if the Marines were interrogated on board the ship, Enrica Lexie.

Marines Latorre Massimillano and Salvatore Girone were sentenced by a court here Monday, with police permitted to interrogate them for three days.

With the three-day period ending Thursday, the Marines were brought from Kochi and produced before the magistrate.

The Marines have been accused of killing Indian fishermen Ajesh Binki and Gelastine Feb 15 from aboard the Italian ship after mistaking them to be pirates.

Earlier in the day, counsel for the two argued in the Kerala High Court that the incident took place in international waters and so the case could not be taken up in India.

Lawyer Sunil Dutt told the court that they could only be tried in an international court.

The director general of prosecution, T. Asaf Ali, told the court that the weapon used in the killings was yet to be recovered from the ship.

He said police would need their further custody as more investigation had to be carried out.

The court asked notices to be served on the central and the state government and posted it for further hearing Feb 28.

In a related development, the two sisters of Ajesh Binki, the fishermen from Tamil Nadu, filed a petition in the high court demanding Rs.2 crore as compensation.

On Wednesday, Gelastine’s wife had said she would go in for an appeal against the high court single bench’s verdict directing the ship owner to furnish a bank guarantee of Rs.2.5 million.

She has filed a petition demanding a compensation of Rs.1 crore.