World Court to announce judgment on Indian spy case this July

ISLAMABAD: The International Court of Justice (ICJ) will hold a public sitting on July 17 at the Peace Palace in The Hague to deliver its verdict through President of the Court, Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf on the alleged Indian spy, Kulbushan Jadhav case announced the principal judicial organ of the United Nations in a press release on Thursday.
The Indian naval official, Commander Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav, was arrested by Pakistan in March 2016 from southwestern Baluchistan province during a counter-intelligence operation.
Islamabad claims Jadhav confessed to his involvement in subversive activities and espionage against Pakistan working for India’s premier intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
Placed on trial by a military court in Pakistan, Jadhav was found guilty and sentenced to death.
India, however approached the world court in May 2016, invoking the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Subsequently, the informally called World Court open only to States for contentious proceedings, and to certain organs and institutions of the United Nations system for advisory proceedings passed an order directing Pakistan to stay the execution, pending a final decision.
Islamabad has made Jadhav’s statements public, but New Delhi has countered that the officer is retired, and claimed that he was kidnapped from Iran, and that he was made to confess under duress to fabricated charges.
In February this year, the court held four days of back to back public hearings for the case in The Hague. A delegation representing Pakistan was led by Attorney General Anwar Man¬soor while Harish Salve represented New Delhi during court proceedings. The final ruling by the court was expected this summer.
A senior foreign office official had told Arab News that Pakistan would respect and “will accept the final decision of the ICJ” adding that “there are more charges of terrorism and sabotage that Jadhav would be charged with after the court’s judgment.”
“There are specific instances (of terrorism) that he has confessed to and those cases against him are pending”, the official said.
Pakistan gave access to Jhadav’s family on humanitarian grounds in December 2017. Officials had said Islamabad would be willing to entertain a request in future if his family submits an application to meet the ill-fated spy however no request publicly known was made.
In a special handout given to Arab News in February, Pakistan had argued that India failed to provide evidence that Jadhav was kidnapped. It also failed to explain why and when the officer retired and why he was in possession of an authentic Indian passport under a false cover Muslim name. Why is India demanding his return pending an international court decision, another question Islamabad raised? Consular access cannot be granted to a person implicated in national security matters under the 2008 Agreement on Consular Access between both sides, argues Pakistan.