J Freddy withdrew his complaint after he was paid compensation of Rs 1.7 million by Italian authorities Enrica Lexie
OUR CORRESPONDENT Thiruvananthapuram
After families of two fishermen shot dead by Italian marines on
board their merchant vessel, Enrica Lexie, reached a compromise with the Italian government, the owner of the boat in which the victims were out for fishing has also been permitted by the Kerala High Court to settle his compensation claim outside the court.
The application filed by Freddy J, the owner of St.
Antony boat was on Friday referred to the permanent Lok Adalat, a reconciliation wing of the high court, for settlement.
Freddys counsel Raja Vijaya Raghavan said Freddy had agreed to withdraw the compensation suit he filed in the high court for a compensation of Rs 72 lakh after the Italian authorities agreed to offer him Rs 17 lakh.
Freddy, who captained the boat when the incident happened off the Kollam coast on February 15, is the prime witness in the criminal case Kerala police have registered against marines, Latore Massimilliano and Salvatore Girone, who shot dead two fishermen on board the fishing boat.
After accepting the compensation offered by the Italian authorities, Freddy will not pursue the suit filed against the owners of alt39alt39 Enrica Lexie”, Vijaya Raghavan said.
He said Italian authorities had approached Freddy as a ” goodwill” gesture and offered Rs 17 million as compensation to settle the case.
The families of the deceased fishermen- Valentine Jalastine and Ajesh Binki – reached a compromise with Italian authorities and withdrew all cases against the marines and the Italian authorities by accepting a compensation of Rs 1 crore each.
Freddys decision to withdraw the compensation suit may help the release of the merchant ship detained at Kochi. The Supreme Court is scheduled to consider a petition filed by the owners of the ship in this regard on April 30.
