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Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav held in Pakistan over espionage charges was not allowed the right to appeal to a higher court despite the verdict by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2019, said the Pakistani government in the Supreme Court on Thursday, according to the Pakistani newspaper Dawn.
Pak defence ministry counsel Khawaja Haris Ahmed, appearing before a seven-judge constitutional bench argued that Jadhav was only allowed consular access and not a legal right to challenge his sentence.
“The ICJ verdict addressed only the consular access issue under Article 36 of the Vienna Convention. It never directed Pakistan to extend appeal rights,” he told the court
The ICJ ruling
Jadhav, after his arrest by Pakistani authorities in 2016 was charged of spying and sentenced to death the following year. However, India rejected the charges levelled against him and approached the International Court of Justice which stayed Jadhav’s execution in 2018 and in 2019 upheld Kulbhushan Jadhav’s right to consular access.
"Court finds that Pakistan deprived India of the right to communicate with and have access to Kulbhushan Jadhav, to visit him in detention and to arrange for his legal representation and thereby breached obligations incumbent upon it under Vienna Convention on Consular Relations,” the ICJ ruling read, as per India Today.
Who is Kulbhushan Jadhav?
Kulbhushan Jadhav is a former Indian Navy officer, who was arrested by the Pakistani authorities in March 2016 reportedly from Balochistan. Pakistan has alleged that Jadhav worked for India's external spy agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) and was behind terrorist activities in their country. Pakistan had also released a video of Jadhav 'confessing' to be a RAW agent.
After his arrest Pakistan slapped charges of spying against Jadhav and sentenced him to death the following year.
It was then that India which constantly rejected the charges and approached the International Court of Justice. Post ICJ ruling in 2019, Pakistan has granted only one consular access to Jadhav, reported Mint.