BackIndia urges ICJ to set aside Kulbhushan Jadhav’s ‘farcical trial’ by Pakistan
India said at the hearing it feared that Kulbhushan Jadhav could be executed by Pakistan before it concludes its arguments at the International Court of Justice (ICJ)
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New Delhi: India on Monday said it feared that Kulbhushan Jadhav, a former naval officer arrested by Pakistan on charges of espionage and sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court, could be executed before it concludes its arguments at the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ).
The charges against Jadhav, who was arrested on 3 March last year, had been framed on the basis of confessional statements extracted from him when he was in Pakistan’s military custody, counsel Harish Salve added.
India’s case was presented by Salve, joint secretary in-charge of Pakistan Deepak Mittal and joint secretary in-charge of legal issues and treaties in the Indian foreign ministry V.D. Sharma at the ICJ at a special hearing.
The Jadhav case has vitiated the atmospherics between India and Pakistan with ties at a low following a spate of terrorist attacks in 2016.
India had on 8 May moved a petition before the ICJ, the United Nation’s principal judicial organ, to seek justice for Jadhav, 46, accusing Pakistan of violating the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations by Pakistan after its 16 requests for consular access to the former naval officer were denied.
The last time the two subcontinental rivals faced off at the ICJ was nearly two decades ago when Islamabad sought the ICJ’s intervention over the shooting down of its naval reconnaissance aircraft by the Indian Air Force in Gujarat’s Kutch region on 10 August 1999, killing all 16 naval personnel on board.
A Pakistani military court had handed the death sentence to Jadhav last month for alleged espionage and subversive activities in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province.
In a ruling last week, the ICJ put a stay on Pakistan’s military court verdict.
Opening India’s arguments, Deepak Mittal described the charges against Jadhav as “concocted" and that he was been held “incommunicado" since his arrest— a reference to the 16 requests for consular access by India that were ignored by Pakistan.
He urged the ICJ to set aside “the farcical trial" by the Pakistani military court with Jadhav’s confession secured in captivity with no legal counsel being present and no consular access to him by Indian high commission officials.
Salve on his part described Jadhav’s situation as “grave" and said that Pakistan had not responded to Jadhav’s mother’s plea to see her son. He said that Pakistan’s military court had in April alone carried out 18 executions which had stoked India’s concerns that the death sentence on Jadhav would be carried out before the ICJ could pronounce a provisional ruling.
Pakistan in its argument said India’s application on Jadhav’s death sentence was “unnecessary and misconceived."
Mohammed Faisal, a Pakistan Foreign Office official, in his opening remarks accused India of using the court as the “scene of political theatre" and added that, “we will not respond in kind."
Pakistan’s counsel Khawer Qureshi said while India had said Jadhav was an Indian national, New Delhi had not presented Pakistan with any evidentiary proof that he was Indian. The provisions of the Vienna Convention—a treaty that defines a framework for diplomatic relations between independent countries—do not apply to a ‘spy’ involved in terror activities, Qureshi further argued.
India claims Jadhav was kidnapped from Iran where he was involved in business activities after retiring from the Indian Navy. India acknowledges that Jadhav had served with the Navy but denies that he has any connection with the government.
Prior to approaching the ICJ, India had also handed over to Pakistan an appeal by Jadhav’s mother, initiating a process to get his conviction overturned. Indian foreign minister Sushma Swaraj had written to Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan’s foreign affairs adviser to the prime minister, requesting him to issue visas to Jadhav’s family members wishing to meet him. Pakistan didn’t respond to this request too.
PTI a contributed to this story
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