In June 2021, the Palermo Court of Appeal decided that Giovanni Tedesco, as the master of the Salvatore, Alessandro Tedesco, and Cosimo Cracchiolo, were not guilty of having disobeyed an order by the Guardia di Finanza (the GF) to stop their ship, and of not allowing its control by the Italian authorities, as they were found to have illegally fished red tuna in violation of Italian law. In particular, the Court of Appeal did not consider the GF's vessel a warship, as there was no naval official on board.

The General Prosecutor (the GP) of the Palermo Court of Appeal appealed in cassation, arguing that the Court erred regarding the nature of the GF's vessel. The GP stressed that the presence of a naval official is not a requirement for a warship under Italian law or art 29 of UNCLOS, as well as the interpretation of UNCLOS, taking into account its translations into the six official languages. The definition of 'warship' under Italian law would be more restrictive, and would not reflect the spirit of UNCLOS.

Held: The appeal in cassation is dismissed.

The Court did not find any violation of UNCLOS by Italian law, which conforms to the French text of UNCLOS, which defines a warship as being 'sous le commandement d'un officier de marine au service de cet Etat et inscrit sur la liste des officiers ou un document équivalent', following one of the official texts under art 320 of UNCLOS. This conformity to the French version excluded any violation of UNCLOS.

Moreover, the Court noted that other versions of the text, such as those in English and Spanish, only mention the role of officials, without specifying the institutional body to which they belong. However, they always refer to 'officials', and not to inferior degrees, such as sub-officials, as in this case. For these reasons, the Court ruled out the possibility that UNCLOS considers as 'officials' persons who are materially in command of ships, even if it they are not qualified as officials.

In conclusion, following art 29 of UNCLOS, the Court emphasised that the GF's vessels are military vessels, but are not warships.