NEW DELHI — India has dropped a plan to prosecute two Italian marines accused of killing two Indian fishermen under a tough anti-piracy law, a government lawyer said on Monday, 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 last week it recalled its ambassador to New Delhi in protest against the delay in the two-year-old case. The sailors say they mistook the fishermen for pirates and fired warning shots into the water during the incident in Feb. 2012. Indian attorney general Ghoolam Vahanvati told the Supreme Court on Monday that the prosecution did not intend to proceed against Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone under the anti-piracy section of the Suppression of Unlawful Acts. He gave no reason. “We want to delete the anti-piracy clause,” he said. The men can still be tried under India's criminal laws, but the punishment there in case of a conviction is ordinarily less stringent than under the piracy law. The government had originally sought to prosecute the marines under the piracy law partly because the incident occurred outside the geographical area covered by the country's criminal code. — Reuters
