India seeks ICJ direction to Pakistan for Kulbhushan trial in civil court
The Hague, Feb 20 (IBNS): India on Wednesday urged the International Court of Justice to annual the Pakistani military court's awarding of the death sentence to Kulbhushan Jadhav - an Indian national held in the neighbouring country on suspicion of spying and direct fair trial in a civilian court, reports said.
India also sought full consular access to Jadhav, who was arrested in Balochistan in 2016 on espionage charges.
Earlier, India strongly objected to the Pakistan counsel's use of abusive language in connection with the case of Kulbhushan Jadhav - an Indian national held in the neighbouring country on suspicion of spying - in the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Harish Salve, who is the former solicitor general of India, while presenting India’s case before the ICJ, objected to the abusive language used by Pakistan's counsel Khawar Qureshi on the second day of the hearing.
“The language echoed in this court... perhaps this court may lay down some redlines. The transcript is peppered with words such as shameless, nonsense, disgraceful, arrogant... India takes exception to being addressed in this fashion in an international court. Indian culture prevents me from using similar language. India strongly objects to abusive language of Pakistan’s counsel,” Salve was quoted as saying.
Jadhav, 48, was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on espionage charges in April 2017 but after Indian government moved the international court, the 10-member bench of the ICJ on May 18, 2017 had given a stay order and 'restrained' Pakistan from executing Jadhav till adjudication of the case.
The hearing on the case at the ICJ as per a timetable for the public hearing in the case will be held from Feb 18 to 21.
In its written pleadings, India has accused Pakistan of violating the Vienna Convention by not giving consular access to Jadhav arguing that the convention did not say that such access would not be available to an individual arrested on espionage charges.
India has said the so called trial of Jadhav by a military court in Pakistan was "farcical".
Later in December, 2017, Kulbhushan Jadhav was allowed to meet his wife and mother but later on MEA in Delhi said it appeared Jadhav was “under considerable stress” and “speaking in an atmosphere of coercion”.
“The manner in which the meeting was conducted and its aftermath was clearly an attempt to bolster a false and unsubstantiated narrative of Jadhav’s alleged activities,” the ministry had said in a statement.
“The Pakistani side conducted the meeting in a manner that violated the letter and spirit of our understandings," it had said.
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