New Delhi: The International Court of Justice, which has suspended the death sentence of alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav, is likely to hear India’s plea on Monday, said noted lawyer Harish Salve who is representing India at the ICJ.
Salve said on Wednesday that “India has taken a calibrated decision” on approaching the international court, in The Hague, Netherlands, and will wait to see Pakistan’s legal response.
“We are told to be there on Monday. We may have a hearing on Monday or a scheduling on Monday. We needed immediate relief. Whenever Pakistan is willing to be engaged we are ready,” the lawyer told NDTV news channel.
Salve also said that consular access to Jadhav, sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court, is the right of India and the Indian.
“There is a stand alone obligation for consular access, which is not just the right of the State but also the right of the accused — and that is basically meant that right from the time you are arrested in the foreign country you have the benefit of consular access,” Salve told Times Now.
Indian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday said the decision to move the ICJ was a “carefully-considered decision to save the life of a son of India”.
“This is a course of action chosen after careful consideration to save the life of an Indian citizen, a son of India, who is in illegal detention and whose life is under threat. He was an innocent man,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay said.
Baglay said Pakistan did not provide consular access to Jadhav, and gave no response on India’s demand for case papers.
“There was no information on appeal by Jadhav’s family against the order of the Pakistan military court. Also he was denied consular access to present his side to the Indian government. Clearly, this was in violation of basic human rights and that of an Indian citizen,” Baglay added.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj spoke to Jadhav’s mother Wednesday morning.
“I have spoken to the mother of Kulbhushan Jadhav and told her about the order of President, International Court of Justice under Artice 74 paragraph 4 of Rules of Court,” Swaraj told media.
Senior lawyer Harish Salve, who represented India at the ICJ, described the development as a major diplomatic win for India.
“Since March 25 last year when Pakistan had announced Jadhav’s arrest from Balochistan and charged him for spying, India has made 16 requests for consular access to him, repeatedly sought access to court documents to be able to appeal against his death sentence and backed the Jadhav family’s request for visas to meet him. In between, his mother had also sent a petition against the execution. However, Pakistan government had turned a deaf ear to all these requests,” Salve said.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the ICJ said: “On 8 May 2017, the Republic of India instituted proceedings against the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, accusing the latter of aegregious violations of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations’ [hereinafter the ‘Vienna Convention’] in the matter of the detention and trial of an Indian national, Mr Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav, sentenced to death by a military court in Pakistan.”
“The Applicant contends that it was not informed of Mr Jadhav’s detention until long after his arrest and that Pakistan failed to inform the accused of his rights,” the statement said.
Under Article 74, paragraph 4 of the ICJ rules, which says “pending the meeting of the Court, the President may call upon the parties to act in such a way as will enable any order the Court may make on the request for provisional measures to have its appropriate effects”, ICJ President Justice Ronny Abraham has written to Pakistan seeking the suspension of the sentence.
Jadhav, a former Indian naval officer, was allegedly arrested in Balochistan in March 2016 and Pakistan said Jadhav worked for the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) fuelling the Baloch separatist movement and attempting to sabotage the CPEC project.
A military court sentenced him to death on April 10 on charges of espionage and waging war against Islamabad.
New Delhi had warned that if Jadhav was hanged, it would be considered “premeditated murder” by Islamabad.
— With inputs from agencies
