International Court of Justice to start final hearings on Kulbhushan Jadhav’s case from Feb 18

The International Court of Justice will start the final round of hearing to decide India’s appeal against Khulbhushan Jadhav’s execution from 18 February in The

The International Court of Justice will start the final round of hearing to decide India’s appeal against Khulbhushan Jadhav’s execution from 18 February in The Hague, the seat of the Court, an announcement by the world court body said.

Former Indian navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav seen on a screen during a news conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad, Pakistan. (Reuters File Photo)

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.

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.