Marine undergoes heart surgery in Italy, days before return

One of the two Italian marines, accused of killing two Indian fishermen in 2012, underwent a heart surgery on Monday in Milan to correct a cardiac anomaly, days before his scheduled return to India.

Massimiliano Latorre underwent heart surgery this morning in Milan to correct a cardiac anomaly that had "a positive outcome", Italian news agency ANSA quoted sources at the Policlinico di San Donato hospital as saying.
Latorre was hospitalised on Friday. He has been in Italy after India's Supreme Court allowed him to go to his home country on September 12 for four months for medical treatment and recovery following a stroke he suffered in India on August 31.

Latorre then sought an extension of his stay citing his heart surgery. The Supreme Court last month refused the pleas of murder accused Latorre seeking extension of his stay in Italy on health grounds and his fellow marine co-accused Marine Salvatore Girone the permission to travel there for Christmas, saying they cannot get such a "leeway".

The two Italian marines, accused of killing two fishermen off Kerala in 2012, maintain that they fired at them after mistaking them for pirates while guarding an Italian oil tanker. The marines had been living in the Italian embassy in New Delhi since then waiting to be tried, and were not supposed to leave the country. The situation has led to tense relations between India and Italy, which says that India has no jurisdiction in the case.