Kulbhushan Jadav’s Death sentence stayed by ICJ !!!

(Pi Bureau)

 

New Delhi :  Pakistan has been asked by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to hold off the death sentence awarded to Indian Kulbhushan Jadhav, accused by the country of spying. A letter has been sent to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif by the president of the ICJ official sources say.

Earlier, “Mr.Harish Salve, Senior Advocate is representing India before International Court of Justice in the #KulbhushanJadhav case, “ Tweeted Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj.

In an another tweet Foreign minister said “I have spoken to the mother of #KulbhushanJadhav and told her about the order of President, ICJ under Art 74 Paragraph 4 of Rules of Court.”

The ruling is binding on Pakistan, says senior lawyer Harish Salve, who represents India at the International Court of Justice in Hague, Netherlands. The court is likely to take up the case next on May 15.

Jadhav’s mother had earlier applied for a visa to be able to visit Pakistan and appeal against his death sentence but Islamabad has not yet responded to the request.

Both India and Pakistan have signed up for the “Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations concerning the Compulsory Settlement of Disputes, 1963,” which says that such disputes are within the compulsory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice.

Kulbhushan Jadhav, a former naval officer, was arrested by Pakistan last year and accused of spying. Pakistan claimed he had been arrested from the restive Balochistan province. Last month, the 46-year-old was sentenced to death by a military court there.

India had stated that the sentence of the military court was in brazen defiance of the Vienna Convention rights under Article 36 and elementary human rights of an accused.

India alleged Pakistan authorities are denying India its right of consular access to Jadhav despite its repeated requests. “The applicant also points out that it learned about the death sentence against Jadhav from a press release. India submits that it has information that Jadhav was `kidnapped from Iran, where he was carrying on business after retiring from the Indian Navy , and was then shown to have been arrested in Baluchistan’ on 3 March 2016, and that the Indian authorities were notified of that arrest on 25 March 2016,” said the ICJ in a press statement before it stayed the death sentence.