Kulbhushan Jadhav case: Despite ICJ ruling, Pakistan govt denies Indian national right to appeal

Pakistan’s defence ministry told the country’s Supreme Court that Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav, who has been held in Pakistan over espionage charges, was not allowed the right to appeal. The statement from the Pakistani government came in response to the earlier argument that claimed the right to appeal was provided to Jadhav, but the same facility was not extended to Pakistani citizens convicted by military courts in the May 9 violence.

The ministry clarified that in light of the 2019 International Court of Justice (ICJ) verdict, Jadhav was only provided consular access and not the right to appeal. The counsel of the defence ministry put forward the statement to the seven-judge Constitutional Bench on Wednesday, Dawn reported.

In 2019, the ICJ told Pakistan that the country was in breach of Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations 1963 for not providing the facility of consular access to foreign nationals accused of spying. In response, Pakistan enacted the International Court of Justice (Review and Reconsideration) Act 2021, adding the law to review and reconsider military court orders, including those related to foreign nationals. According to Dawn, lawyer Khawaja Haris Ahmed was representing the defence ministry during the hearing.

What is the case about?

Jadhav was a former Navy officer who had taken early retirement and was running a business in Chabahar, Iran. He was allegedly abducted and detained in Pakistan on fabricated charges. Jadhav was eventually apprehended in the Chaman region near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border on March 3, 2016.

In April 2017, a Pakistani military court sentenced him to death, accusing him of espionage and sabotage. At that time, India strongly condemned the judgement, referring to it as “premeditated murder”. Eventually, the ICJ intervened and halted the execution. The international tribunal went on to direct Pakistan to review the trial process and grant India consular access.

The question of Jadhav getting the right to appeal against his death sentence has been heavily debated in Pakistan as well. In March 2022, the Islam­a­bad High Court observed that an Indian national can not be denied the right to a fair trial.

At that time, the court also asked the Indian government to ask an official of its mission in Pakistan to attend the hearings of the review petition filed against Jadhav’s conviction.

Not only this, the Pakistani National Assembly adopted a bill in June giving Kulbhushan Jadhav the right to appeal against the death sentence awarded by the military court. Hence, the recent statement from the Pakistani defence ministry appeared to be backtracking on the country’s previous stance after the ICJ verdict.