Kulbhushan Jadhav’s confession is shown to journalists during a press conference in Islamabad, March 29, 2016. Aamir Qureshi—AFP
India claims former military official not a spy and was charged with espionage after being kidnapped in Pakistan
The International Court of Justice will decide on Wednesday on India’s bid to remove a convicted spy from death row in Pakistan, in a case that has stoked tensions between the rival nations.
Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav, a former Indian navy officer, was arrested in Balochistan province in March 2016 on charges of espionage. A Pakistani military court subsequently sentenced the 48-year-old to death in 2017, sparking outrage in India.
The Hague-based ICJ, which is the U.N.’s top court, said it “will deliver, on Wednesday July 17, 2019, its Judgment in the Jadhav case (India v. Pakistan)” at 1300 GMT.
India insists that Jadhav was not a spy and says he was kidnapped in Pakistan. New Delhi is asking the ICJ to order Islamabad to annul the sentence.
India’s lawyers told the court in February that it was a “farcical case” based on “malicious propaganda,” while Pakistan’s lawyers hit back by accusing Jadhav of “terrorism.”
The last hearing coincided with a sharp spike in tensions between the two neighbors after a suicide bombing in restive Kashmir, although relations have since improved.
The ICJ was set up in 1946 to rule in disputes between countries. The court has already intervened previously in the case, issuing an urgent order in 2017 telling Pakistan to stay Jadhav’s execution while it dealt with the issue in more detail.
Jadhav was accused of working for the Indian intelligence services in Balochistan, a province bordering Afghanistan, where Islamabad has long accused India of backing separatist rebels. In February, Pakistan’s attorney general told the ICJ that Jadhav’s “unlawful activities were directed at creating anarchy in Pakistan and particularly targeted the China-Pakistan corridor.”
China and Pakistan are close allies and Beijing has funded a huge port at Gwadar on the Balochistan coast.
After a closed trial, Jadhav was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on April 10, 2017, on charges of “espionage, sabotage and terrorism.” New Delhi alleges that Islamabad violated the Vienna Convention by failing to provide him with consular access, as well as breaking human rights law.
India has also accused Pakistan of harassing Jadhav’s family in 2017 during a meeting that was held in an “atmosphere of coercion.” It said Jadhav’s conversation with his mother and wife was “tutored and designed to perpetuate the false narrative of his alleged activities in Pakistan.”
The two neighbors routinely accuse one another of sending spies into their countries. Jadhav joined India’s prestigious National Defense Academy in 1987 and was commissioned as an engineer in the Indian Navy in 1991 before reportedly starting a business in Iran.