Enrica Lexie case: Marines to be in court tomorrow for pre-trial procedures

KOLLAM: Setting the stage for trial in the ' Enrica Lexie' ship case, two Italian marines charged with shooting to death two Indian fishermen off Kerala coast will be produced in the District and Sessions Court here tomorrow.

Sessions Judge P D Rajan had issued the relevant warrant to prison authorities to produce the marines, Latore Massimilliano and Salvatore Girone, who are the first and second accused in the case.

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 Sessions Court for trial.

The marines, engaged for security of the Italian vessel Enrica Lexie, were arrested on February 19 on the charge of opening fire and killing fishermen Jalastine and Ajesh Binki who had ventured into the sea from Neendakara near here in a fishing boat which had nine others on board.

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.

In a respite for the two marines, the Kerala High court had on Wednesday granted them bail with stringent conditions but they were yet to come out of detention after fulfilling the conditions.