NEW DELHI: India requested the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to intervene in connection with Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav, an Indian spy sentenced to death by the Pakistan’s military court. Accusing Pakistan of violations of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, India sought proceedings against Pakistan and appealed to the court for a stay on Jadhav’s...

Accusing Pakistan of violations of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, India sought proceedings against Pakistan and appealed to the court for a stay on Jadhav’s death sentence.

In its application, India argued it was not informed about the Indian secret service agent’s detention until long after the arrest.

The spy was captured from Balochistan last year on March 3. The Military Court awarded him death penalty over espionage in Pakistan on behalf of Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing or RAW.

It is pertinent to note here that Jadhav was a serving officer in the Indian Navy.

In its plea, India submits that Jadhav was ‘kidnapped from Iran’, where he was busy with his business after retiring from the Indian Navy. However, he was shown to have been arrested from Balochistan on 3 March 2016, India added.

Indian application states Indian authorities were notified of that arrest on 25 March 2016.

India, according to the ICJ press release, seeks the following reliefs:

(1) a relief by way of immediate suspension of the sentence of death awarded to the accused.

(2) a relief by way of restitution in interregnum by declaring that the sentence of the military court arrived at, in brazen defiance of the Vienna Convention rights under Article 36, particularly Article 36[,] paragraph 1 (b), and in defiance of elementary human rights of an accused which are also to be given effect as mandated under Article 14 of the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, is violative of international law and the provisions of the Vienna Convention

(3) restraining Pakistan from giving effect to the sentence awarded by the military court, and directing it to take steps to annul the decision of the military court as may be available to it under the law in Pakistan.

(4) if Pakistan is unable to annul the decision, then this Court to declare the decision illegal being violative of international law and treaty rights and restrain Pakistan from acting in violation of the Vienna Convention and international law by giving effect to the sentence or the conviction in any manner, and directing it to release the convicted Indian National forthwith.”

There are media reports that Indian media and government officials claimed that ICJ granted a stay on Jhadav’s execution, but no such statement was issued by the ICJ. –SAMAA