Mumbai: The public hearing in the case of Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court over allegations of espionage, terrorism as well as spying charges, will be heard by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) from February 18 to 21, next year.
Kulbhushan Jadhav, 47, was sentenced to death in April last year on spying charges. India has denied all the charges and moved the ICJ in May 2017 against the verdict, invoking its power under Article 74 of the Rules of the Court to grant provisional measures.
A 10-member bench of ICJ had in May this year, granted India’s request for provisional measures and restrained Pakistan from executing Kulbhushan Jadhav till adjudication of the case.
India has accused Pakistan of violating Article 36(1) of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, 1963, in that the latter failed to inform them of Kulbhushan Jadhav’s detention until long after his arrest.
In its letter to the ICJ, India claimed that Kulbhushan Jadhav was kidnapped from Iran, where he was carrying on business after retiring from the Indian Navy, and was then shown to have been arrested in Balochistan on March 3, 2016.
However, India was informed of Kulbhushan Jadhav’s arrest only on March 25, 2016.
India also stated that repeated attempts to provide Kulbhushan Jadhav consular access have been turned down by Pakistan.
In its application, India has also stated that Kulbhushan Jadhav would be executed should the ICJ not interfere, and that would cause “irreparable prejudice to the rights claimed by India”.
