Marines produced in court, case posted to June 18

Charged with shooting dead 2 Indian fishermen off the Kerala coast

A local court today posted to June 18 trial of the 'Enrica Lexie' case in which two Italian marines have been charged with shooting dead two Indian fishermen off the Kerala coast on February 15.

The marines Latore Massimilliano and Salvatore Girone were produced in the district and Sessions Court today when the case came up before Sessions Judge P D Rajan.

The court directed the state government to provide a list of interpreters before the next sitting to translate court proceedings into Italian for the benefit of the accused.

It also asked the prosecution to provide copies of the charge sheet to the two marines, as sought by them.

The First Class Magistrate Court here, where the case was initially considered, had a few days ago issued a committal warrant for transferring the case to the Sessions Court for trial.

The marines, engaged for security of the Italian vessel, were arrested on February 19 for opening fire and killing fishermen Jalestine and Ajesh Binki, who had ventured into the sea from nearby Neendakara in a fishing boat with nine others.

The marines have been under custody since then, mostly in the Central Prison at Thiruvananthapuram before being moved to Borstal School at Kochi a few days ago.

The Kerala High Court had on May 30 granted them bail with stringent conditions, but they were yet to come out of detention after fulfilling the conditions.