THE HAGUE: India has moved the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Pakistan, accusing the latter of violating the Vienna Convention in the case of Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was handed a death sentence by a Field General Court Martial (FGCM) last month.
In an application filed in the ICJ, India stated that Pakistan has repeatedly denied consular access to Jadhav, a press release issued by The Hague-based ICJ said. India alleged that ‘it was not informed of Jadhav’s detention until long after his arrest’, and it learned about the death sentence only through the media. Maintaining that Jadhav was a retired officer of the Indian Navy, India claimed that he was kidnapped from Iran where he was involved in a business undertaking.
Jadhav was ‘shown to have been arrested in Balochistan’ on March 3, 2016, India claimed, according to the ICJ handout.
“Indian authorities were notified of that arrest on March 25, 2016,” India said.
According to the press release, India requested the ICJ to ensure that Jadhav’s death sentence is suspended and declared a violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. India also sought to restrain Pakistan from ‘giving effect to the sentence’ and asked the ICJ to direct Pakistan ‘to take steps to annul the decision of the military court’. “If Pakistan is unable to annul the decision, then this Court [is] to declare the decision illegal and in violation of international law,” India requested. Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said in a tweet Wednesday that senior advocate Harish Salve is representing India before ICJ in the Jadhav case.
Jadhav was arrested on March 3, 2016, through a counter-intelligence operation in Balochistan’s Mashkel area for his involvement in espionage and sabotage activities against Pakistan. He was sentenced to death by the Field General Court Martial in April this year.
India had termed the death sentence awarded to Jadhav ‘an act of premeditated murder’.
Following the sentencing, the Indian foreign minister told Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament, that Delhi would go out of its way to save Jadhav. After a meeting with Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua last month, Indian High Commissioner Gautum Bambawale had claimed that New Delhi made at least 13 requests for Jadhav to be granted consular access but had received no response from Pakistan.
When asked why consular access had been denied to Jadhav, Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit explained during an interview last month that such access is not ‘automatic’, especially for matters that are ‘sensitive and related to security’. “Consular access is not provided across the board, let us remember that,” he said.
