On Kulbhushan Jadhav, ICJ slams Pakistan for violating Vienna Convention; 10 points

New Delhi:

In a major diplomatic victory for India on the global front, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Wednesday suspended the death sentence to Indian citizen Kulbhushan Jadhav, who had been sentenced to death by a military court in Pakistan. Delivering the verdict, the World Court slammed Pakistan for violating the Vienna Convention by not allowing India to have access to Kulbhushan Jadhav. The court also directed Pakistan to reconsider the conviction of Jadhav and stayed his execution.

Here are the 10 points of ICJ's verdict on Kulbhushan Jadhav case:

1. Court finds that Pakistan deprived India of the right to communicate with and have access to Kulbhushan Jadhav, to visit him in detention and to arrange for his legal representation,and thereby breached obligations incumbent upon it under Vienna Convention on Consular Relations: ICJ Court
2. On this, Pakistan had unsuccessfully argued that Article 36 of the VCCR does not apply to people involved in espionage.
3. ICJ judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, while reading out the verdict, said that the execution of Jadhav will remain suspened until "effective review and reconsideration of the conviction and sentence".
4. The International Court of Justice said that "there is no room for doubt that Jadhav is an Indian national."
5. The World Court, however, rejected India's remedies in the case, including annulment of the military court decision and Jadhav's return to India.
6. Former minister of external affairs Sushma Swaraj, during whose tenure India had moved the case to ICJ, welcomed the verdict in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case and has termed it a victory for India.
   
7. India moved the ICJ in May 8, 2017 for the "egregious violation" of the provisions of the Vienna Convention by Pakistan by repeatedly denying New Delhi consular access to Jadhav.
   
8. Reacting to the ICJ verdict, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said, "International Court of Justice has directed Pakistan to grant consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav. It is no doubt a big victory for India."
   
9. 49-year-old Jadhav, a retired Indian Navy officer, was sentenced to death by the Pakistani military court on charges of "espionage and terrorism" after a closed trial in April 2017.
   
10. The verdict in the high-profile case comes nearly five months after a 15-member bench of ICJ led by Judge Yusuf had reserved its decision on February 21 after hearing oral submissions by India and Pakistan. The proceedings of the case took two years and two months to complete.

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