The International Court of Justice has asked Pakistan to make sure that arrested Indian Kulbhushan Jadhav is not executed until a final decision is taken on his case. Presiding judge Ronny Abraham read the court's unanimous decision, “Pakistan shall take all measures at its disposal to ensure that Mr Jadhav is not executed pending the final decision in these proceedings. The circumstances of his arrest are in dispute... India should have been given consular access as per Vienna Convention.”
Staying Jadhav's death sentence, ICJ said he will not be executed before August 2017. Judge Abraham stated that the mere fact that he may be executed is sufficient to demonstrate that there is a risk of irreparable damage. "It appears that the rights invoked by India in the present case are plausible."
After much wrangling with its neighbour, New Delhi had called upon the UN's top court to interfere in the issue and order Islamabad to suspend the execution of the former navy officer held guilty of spying by a Pakistani military court. Both countries faced each other in the ICJ, quickly escalating tension over months and years of pending ceasefire violations by Pak, terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, and the recent brutal mutilation of two Indian soldeirs.
In the hearing, held on Monday, India blamed Pak of “egregious violations of the Vienna Convention” by denying him access to legal counsel and consular access. New Delhi said Jadhav was “an innocent Indian national, who incarcerated in Pakistan for more than a year on concocted charges... has been held incommunicado... and faces imminent execution.”
Pak, on the other hand, denied the execution was imminent and that Jadhav had time at least till August for legal remedies. Pakistani representative accused India of “political grandstanding” and told the court that the arrested man “has confessed to having been sent by India to wage terror on the innocent civilians and infrastructure of Pakistan.”
