International Court of Justice to hear final hearing on Kulbhushan Jadhav’s case from February 18

New Delhi, October 4: In a long series of twists and turns, the International Court of Justice will hold public hearings in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case from February 18-21 next year. The United Nations principal judicial organ, based at The Hague, will start hearing the case, more than a year after it stayed the former Indian Navy officer's execution by Pakistan.

 

The first round of oral arguments will take place on February 18, when India will argue from 10 am to 1 pm. Pakistan will put forth their first round arguments on February 19, from 10 am to 1 pm.

Kulbhushan Jadhav, 47, was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on spying charges in April 2017. India moved the ICJ in May the same year against the verdict. The world court has halted Jadhav’s execution on India’s appeal pending the final verdict by it.

Both India and Pakistan have already submitted their detailed pleas and responses in the world court.

Kulbhushan Jadhav’s sentencing had evoked a sharp reaction in India. India had approached the ICJ for “egregious” violation of the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, 1963, by Pakistan in Jadhav’s case.

Pakistan claims that its security forces arrested Kulbhsuhan Jadhav from restive Balochistan province on March 3, 2016 after he reportedly entered from Iran.

However, India has rejected Pakistan’s contention that Jadhav was involved in espionage and subversive activities and said that he was kidnapped by Pakistani intelligence operatives from the Iranian port of Chabahar, where he was running a business.

India, in its pleadings, had accused Pakistan of violating the Vienna Convention by not giving consular access to Jadhav arguing that the convention did not say that such access would not be available to an individual arrested on espionage charges.