The Hague: India on Monday contended before the International Court of Justice that the continued custody of Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav in Pakistan jail was unlawful and demanded his release saying Islamabad has seriously violated various provisions of the 1963 Vienna Convention and other protocols.
India also insisted on consular access for Jadhav, awarded death sentence by a Pakistani military court in 2016 in an alleged espionage case, and accused Pakistan of denying him diplomatic access despite 13 reminders.
Arguing before the court, presided over by ICJ President Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, India’s counsel Harish Salve said Jadhav’s continued custody without consular access should be declared unlawful and the court should order his release.
“Among other things, considering the trauma he was been subjected to for three years, it is in the interest of justice and human rights that the court should direct his release,” he said, adding Pakistan was using him as a propaganda tool. Salve was presenting his arguments after India and Pakistan filed memorials and counter-memorials in the case in which the ICJ had in May 2017 stayed Jadhav’s execution.
He said the trial by Pakistan had failed in following even the minimum standards of natural and human rights. Pakistan did not disclose the date of detention as well. No document of Jadhav’s trial was given to India. Salve said finding itself bereft of any substantive defence, Pakistan has raised a host of issues that do not have relevance to the core issue. Pakistan runs unmerited defences.
It misstates the law, misreads commentaries and relies on material that is not recognised as having any precedential value.” Having failed in its propaganda in a feeble attempt to counter global criticism of its role in cross-border terrorism, Pakistan has sought to raise issues like India’s refusal to allow freewheeling inquiry into high functionaries without even disclosing the fundamental elements of the alleged offences that have been investigated, he said.
Referring to Jadav’s passports, allegedly seized from him, the Indian counsel said it was India’s case and did not call for resolution and decision by this court
