New Delhi/Islamabad: The UN’s top court on Wednesday ordered Pakistan to review and reconsider a decision to convict and sentence a former Indian Navy officer who is on the death row on charges of espionage.
The Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) said Kulbhushan Jadhav’s death sentence was in breach of international law and should be suspended until Pakistan effectively reviewed the case.
Pakistan had violated the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations by not informing Jadhav of his rights under the treaty and denying him consular access, according to the judgement read out by ICJ President Abdulqawi Yusuf.
The ICJ said Pakistan should take appropriate remedial measures “by means of its own choosing” and called for Jadhav to be given access to Indian consular officers without delay.
“The Islamic Republic of Pakistan deprived the Republic of India the right to communicate with and have access, to visit him in detention and to arrange for his legal representation,” the ICJ said. “A continued stay of execution constitutes an indispensable condition for the effective review and reconsideration of the conviction and sentence,” it added.
But the court rejected India’s plea for an annulment and for his release and safe passage to India, saying this was not within its jurisdiction.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry in a statement acknowledged the ruling and said “Pakistan will now proceed as per law,” but also reiterated the country’s belief that he spied for India.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs said the “landmark judgement validates India’s position on this matter fully” and it expected Pakistan to implement the court’s directives immediately. “We will continue to work vigorously for Shri Kulbhushan Jadhav’s early release and return to India,” the ministry said.
Rulings of the ICJ are binding, but it has no power to enforce them.
The case has stoked tensions between the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours.
Jadhav was arrested in March 2016 in Pakistan’s Balochistan province, which borders Afghanistan and has faced a deadly secessionist movement. He was accused of working for Indian intelligence services, charged with spying and sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court in 2017.
India says that Jadhav is not a spy and that he was “kidnapped.”
Pakistan has accused Jadhav of entering Pakistan on a false passport and said he was responsible for acts of “sabotage, espionage and multiple terrorist incidents,” a claim the Foreign Ministry reiterated on Wednesday. The ministry added that Jadhav had confessed to these acts during his trial.
New Delhi had approached the Hague-based court in May 2017, seeking an order asking Islamabad to annul the sentence. — dpa
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
