Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav’s death sentence has been suspended by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on Wednesday.
Agencies
New Delhi, July 17:
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has asked Pakistan to review its order of death sentence awarded to Kulbhushan Jadhav, on charges of espionage and conspiracy against Pakistan.
As the ICJ put the death sentence of Kulbhushan Jadhav on hold, it comes as a major win for India. The verdict was pronounced in favour of India with a 15:1 vote.
The ICJ, while pronouncing its verdict, said, “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.”
India has also been granted consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav and Pakistan has been held guilty for denying India consular access to Jadhav.
President of the Court Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf read out the verdict at a public sitting at the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands.
The ICJ, while pronouncing its verdict on Wednesday evening at The Hague, said that Jadhav should be given fair trial.
The positive verdict in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case comes as a major diplomatic win for India that has been fighting the case in the international court for several years now.
Kulbhushan Jadhav, a 49-year-old retired Indian Navy officer, was sentenced to death by the Pakistani military court on charges of “espionage and terrorism” after a closed trial in April 2017.
India, led by senior advocate Harish Salve, moved the ICJ in May 8, 2017 for the “egregious violation” of the provisions of the Vienna Convention by Pakistan by repeatedly denying New Delhi consular access to Jadhav.
Pakistan had claimed that its security forces arrested Kulbhushan Jadhav from Balochistan province on March 3, 2016 after he entered via Iran.
However, India has maintains that Jadhav was kidnapped from Iran where he had business interests after retiring from the Navy.
Pakistan repeatedly rejected India’s plea for consular access to Jadhav, claiming that New Delhi wants access to get the information gathered by its “spy”.
