SC to take decision over sick Italian marine's plea to go home today

The Supreme Court on Friday will hear an appeal filed by one of the two Italian marines, Massimiliano Latorre, with regard to being allowed to go home on medical grounds. Latorre has been accused of murdering two Kerala fishermen.

Italy's Ambassador to India Daniel Mancini has already reached the Supreme Court for the hearing.

Latorre had filed the plea after he was admitted to a hospital for a health condition similar to a brain stroke on August 31.

On Tuesday, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had said that India will not stop the Italian marine, facing murder charges, from returning home for medical treatment, a case that had soured relations between New Delhi and Rome.

The marines, Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, part of a military security team protecting a tanker from piracy are accused of shooting two Indian fishermen off the coast of Kerala in February 2012.

Earlier, India had dropped plans to prosecute two Italian marines accused of killing two fishermen under a tough anti-piracy law earlier on February 24, offering a chance to end a diplomatic row between the two countries.

Italy had strongly opposed India invoking the law, arguing that it would amount to treating the men as "terrorists" and it recalled its ambassador to New Delhi in protest against the delay in the two-year-old case.