India Allows Sick Italian Marine Home for Treatment

 India's top court on Friday granted permission for an ailing Italian marine facing murder charges to return home for four months for medical treatment.

Massimiliano Lattore, who suffered a stroke in August, is one of two Italian marines being held over the 2012 shooting of two fishermen mistakenly believed to be pirates in a case that has soured ties between New Delhi and Rome.

"We are allowing the plea of the accused (Lattore) to visit Italy for four months for his brain stroke treatment," a Supreme Court bench said in an order.

On Monday, India's Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj expressed the government's willingness to let Lattore, 47, seek medical treatment in Italy.

"This is a comforting outcome that, however, certainly does not distract us from our will to find a rapid solution to the dispute with India, through the initiatives we have already begun and that we are pursuing with determination," Italian Defence Minister Robert Pinotti said.

Following international pressure, India dropped a plan to prosecute the marines under a tough new anti-piracy law. Italy says the incident occurred in international waters and that jurisdiction over the marines should lie with Rome.

In April 2012, Rome paid $190,000 to each of the victims' families as compensation. In return, the families dropped their cases against the marines, but the state's case continues.

(Reporting by Suchitra Mohanty in NEW DELHI and Steve Scherer in ROME; Writing by Malini Menon; Editing by Douglas Busvine)