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KOCHI: More than two months after two Indian fishermen were shot dead, allegedly by Italian naval guards from aboard oil tanker Enrica Lexie, Italian authorities have come forward to settle the compensation claims. Initial reports indicate a compensation of Rs one crore for each victim's family.
For the past few days, a team consisting of the Italian defence minister and officials of that country's foreign affairs department had been in talks with counsels representing the dependents of the two fishermen, Valentine Jelestine and Ajeesh Pink, who died in the incident. Italy, incidentally, still claims that its marines were trying to thwart an attempted piracy attack off Kollam coast on February 15.
The Italians first approached C Unnikrishnan, counsel for Valentine's wife Dora, with the offer to settle the compensation claims through talks. After initial rounds of discussion with him, the counsel for Ajeesh's two dependent sisters, V M Syamkumar, was also roped in.
Along with the two counsels, priests of the two parishes where the fishermen resided also participated in the discussions. The first offer from the Italians was a compensation of Rs 70 lakh each. However, the dependents expressed their unwillingness to settle the claim, following which the offer was raised to Rs one crore each.
By Thursday afternoon, Italian authorities and the dependents of the victims arrived at a final decision to settle the compensation claims. Italian officials are planning to implead in the compensation suits at the Kerala high court on Friday morning as only the ship owners have been made a party as of now. Following this, both sides are planning to approach the court with a joint application to refer the matter for mediation through lok adalat.
The owners of the ship had earlier put forward an informal offer of Rs 35 lakh as compensation for the family of each victim but the offer was rejected outright by the dependents. The ship owners didn't revise their offer.
Fishermen's killing: Families agree to out-of-court settlement with Italy - The Times of India
Great soul and heart shown by the Italians but the victims families are so shameless they still want to extort more money from the Italian government. They should have accepted the offer and start a new life with that money instead of pulling it to court and wait for generations altogether. The victims families will never get that much compensation had it been with the Indian government even in their wildest dream, but it appears like they want to prove it to the world that their mentality is worst than that of the Somali Pirates
So the whole drama was only a part of the ransom payment procedure. It is sure that it must have been the 'ambulance chasers' who must have kept the demand high and must be taking a good percentage of the blood money. Now let us see where the high legalistic stand of the Government of Kerala goes? Will it close down the whole investigations about the killing of two Indina citizen on technically Inidan territory? Since it has taken up the case with so much fanfare and media hype, how it can close the case if blood money is paid? The delay in preferring a case of murder after all these three months just shows that the Government has not enough proof to punish the Italians who have been alleged to have killed the fishermen. It was keeping the Italians as prioners just to give time for the parties to settle the blood money issue out of court. Now Piravom by election is over and the money angle have been settled and the prisoners can be released forthwith. The very same way Pakistan with all its loud mouthed proclamations released the US citizen who shot two Pakistanis following him. What about the 'terrorist act' of the Italians? Were they not termed as terrorists by a presiding judge? Will the parish church also ask for a donation for repairing from the blood money?
For the past few days, a team consisting of the Italian defence minister and officials of that country's foreign affairs department had been in talks with counsels representing the dependents of the two fishermen, Valentine Jelestine and Ajeesh Pink, who died in the incident. Italy, incidentally, still claims that its marines were trying to thwart an attempted piracy attack off Kollam coast on February 15.
The Italians first approached C Unnikrishnan, counsel for Valentine's wife Dora, with the offer to settle the compensation claims through talks. After initial rounds of discussion with him, the counsel for Ajeesh's two dependent sisters, V M Syamkumar, was also roped in.
Along with the two counsels, priests of the two parishes where the fishermen resided also participated in the discussions. The first offer from the Italians was a compensation of Rs 70 lakh each. However, the dependents expressed their unwillingness to settle the claim, following which the offer was raised to Rs one crore each.
By Thursday afternoon, Italian authorities and the dependents of the victims arrived at a final decision to settle the compensation claims. Italian officials are planning to implead in the compensation suits at the Kerala high court on Friday morning as only the ship owners have been made a party as of now. Following this, both sides are planning to approach the court with a joint application to refer the matter for mediation through lok adalat.
The owners of the ship had earlier put forward an informal offer of Rs 35 lakh as compensation for the family of each victim but the offer was rejected outright by the dependents. The ship owners didn't revise their offer.
Fishermen's killing: Families agree to out-of-court settlement with Italy - The Times of India
Great soul and heart shown by the Italians but the victims families are so shameless they still want to extort more money from the Italian government. They should have accepted the offer and start a new life with that money instead of pulling it to court and wait for generations altogether. The victims families will never get that much compensation had it been with the Indian government even in their wildest dream, but it appears like they want to prove it to the world that their mentality is worst than that of the Somali Pirates
So the whole drama was only a part of the ransom payment procedure. It is sure that it must have been the 'ambulance chasers' who must have kept the demand high and must be taking a good percentage of the blood money. Now let us see where the high legalistic stand of the Government of Kerala goes? Will it close down the whole investigations about the killing of two Indina citizen on technically Inidan territory? Since it has taken up the case with so much fanfare and media hype, how it can close the case if blood money is paid? The delay in preferring a case of murder after all these three months just shows that the Government has not enough proof to punish the Italians who have been alleged to have killed the fishermen. It was keeping the Italians as prioners just to give time for the parties to settle the blood money issue out of court. Now Piravom by election is over and the money angle have been settled and the prisoners can be released forthwith. The very same way Pakistan with all its loud mouthed proclamations released the US citizen who shot two Pakistanis following him. What about the 'terrorist act' of the Italians? Were they not termed as terrorists by a presiding judge? Will the parish church also ask for a donation for repairing from the blood money?
