India’s airports were put on alert on Friday to prevent Italy’s ambassador from taking flight, in a dramatic escalation of a dispute over two Italian marines who skipped bail while on trial for murder.
A source in the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs told reporters that an order had been faxed to immigration authorities at all the country’s international airports telling them that: “Daniele Mancini should not leave without permission.”
Another senior official in the department said the ministry “is just following the Supreme Court’s order of preventing the Italian ambassador from leaving India.”
“He will have to inform the immigration authorities if he wants to leave the country,” the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
The Indian Supreme Court on Thursday directed that Mancini, who had negotiated a deal for the marines to return home to vote in last month’s Italian election, should stay in India until the next hearing about the dispute tomorrow.
Rome announced earlier in the week that it was reneging on commitments to send back Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, who face murder charges over the death of two Indian fishermen in February last year.
Mancini signed an affidavit giving his personal assurance that the two marines would return.
Italy said on Friday it would seek a “friendly agreement” with India to resolve the dispute.
“The Italian government is working on a friendly agreement with India based on international law,” Italian President Giorgio Napolitano’s office said in a statement, following talks with the defense, interior and foreign ministers.
The Indian Supreme Court ruling appeared to run contrary to diplomatic norms guaranteeing the freedom of movement of foreign envoys and risks a further souring of relations between Rome and New Delhi.
Article 29 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961 states that diplomats shall “not be liable to any form of arrest or detention.”
However, referring to Mancini’s affidavit, India’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has argued that “if the diplomatic agent willingly submits to the jurisdiction of a court, then that jurisdiction applies.”
Diljeet Titus, a lawyer who is acting for the Italian government and the two marines following the resignation of another attorney, refused to comment on the alert order.
The marines shot dead the fishermen off India’s southwestern coast when a fishing boat sailed close to an Italian oil tanker they were guarding.
They say they mistook the fishermen for pirates.
Italy insists the marines should be prosecuted in their home country because the shootings involved an Italian-flagged vessel in international waters, but India says the killings took place in waters under its jurisdiction.
Relations between the two countries have also been soured by corruption allegations surrounding a US$748 million deal for the purchase of 12 Italian helicopters which the Indian government is now threatening to scrap.
The dispute has been a major embarrassment for the Indian government and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has warned of “consequences” for bilateral ties if the pair do not return to stand trial in New Delhi.
Singh’s rivals have accused the government of incompetence by allowing the marines to go home while facing such serious charges, and the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) says Italy is treating India “like a banana republic.”
The Hindu-nationalist BJP has also implied untoward motives by Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born head of Indian National Congress party.
On Thursday, India Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid discussed the issue with Joao Cravinho, the head of the EU’s diplomatic mission.
“He was briefed about the entire issue. It was important to keep him informed,” an Indian government official said.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the