Can we trust Italy anymore? Marines could have voted here

Did the Italian government pull a fast one on the Supreme Court when it pleaded that its marines, Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, needed to return to Italy to vote in the general elections? The duo has been accused of killing two Kerala fishermen in February 2012 as they thought they were pirates likely to attack their ship Enrica Lexie. The Supreme Court allowed them to leave after the Italian Ambassador to India said they would remain under his control and custody during their visit to Italy for voting in the recent general elections for the chamber of deputies and the senate. But, as we now know, the Italian government never intended to let them return. Worse, they may have told white lies, if not black ones, to convince the court to let them go. While allowing the plea to allow the marines to vote in Italy, a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir “noted that under the Italian law, the marines are not entitled to cast their votes through postal ballot." It, therefore, allowed the marines to travel to Italy and later return to India. [caption id=“attachment_657405” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  This Dec. 20, 2012 file photo shows Italian marines Salvatore Girone, left, and Massimiliano Latorre, arriving at the office of Kochi’s Police Commissioner, in Kochi, India. AP[/caption] But did the marines really need to return to Italy to vote? An information docket released by the Italian Interior Ministry says citizens living abroad, either temporarily or long-term, can vote from where they are if they follow certain rules. (Read the full note here) The interior ministry’s instructions make it clear that “there are three categories of Italians who can vote for the Italian elections even if they reside abroad only temporarily: armed forces or police personnel engaged in international missions; civil servants of public administrations who live outside Italy for work reasons and their family members who live with them, but only if the duration of their stay abroad is over six months; university professors and researchers working at universities or research institutes abroad for at least six months, but only if on the date of the call of the meetings they had been living abroad for at least three months.” The Italian marines who were detained in India are clearly armed forces living abroad. They have been detained in India for more than six months, and were only allowed to go visit their families for Christmas. They could thus have voted with the help of the Italian embassy in Delhi. But the Italian interior ministry note also makes a mention of “citizens who can vote by mail”. These include military and police personnel and civil servants, who had to “submit an application to their headquarters or to the Administration they belong to, within 35 days of the election date in Italy.” The note also indicates what else they must do to vote from the country they are residing in. So, the Supreme Court may not have been given the right information on voting by postal ballot - which could have been resorted to. It seems fairly clear that the Italian government had every intention of fooling us and our courts – and this shows that the Indian government has simply not done its homework. If it had, it could have read the voting regulations before allowing the marines to abscond under the plea of voting. Italy has clearly demonstrated that it is not a state to be trusted. And we have shown that we are absolute fools. Either that, or we are  complicit in this breach of trust on the part of the Italians.