Delhi wants Indian lawyer to represent Kulbhushan Jadhav at death sentence review petition in Pakistan

The Indian government is keen on sending a lawyer from India to represent former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav during the hearing at the Islamabad High Court on his petition for review of the death sentence awarded to him by a military tribunal in Pakistan.

Islamabad, however, has not yet accepted New Delhi’s demand and insisted that India should instead appoint a lawyer who has licence to practice in Pakistan.

Anurag Srivastava, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), told journalists in New Delhi on Thursday that India was in touch with Pakistan through diplomatic channels on the issue of appointing a lawyer for Jadhav who has been incarcerated in the neighbouring country since March 2016.

New Delhi conveyed to Islamabad that Jadhav should be represented by a lawyer from India “for a free and fair trial” in Pakistan and “in keeping with the letter and spirit of the judgement of the International Court of Justice”, said Srivastava.

He, however, underlined that Pakistan should first address the “core issues” by giving copies of the documents related to the case to the officials of the High Commission of India in the capital of the neighbouring country as well as by providing “unimpeded consular access” to Jadhav.

The Pakistani government on July 22 moved the Islamabad High Court seeking appointment of a lawyer to represent Jadhav, stating that New Delhi and the incarcerated former Indian Navy officer had failed to arrange for one.

The High Court on August 3 asked the Pakistani government to approach New Delhi again and to give the Government of India another opportunity to appoint a lawyer to represent Jadhav.

Jadhav is accused and convicted of being involved in espionage and sabotage in Pakistan on behalf of an external intelligence agency of India. A military tribunal awarded him a death sentence in April 2017. New Delhi moved the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which on July 17, 2019, concluded that Islamabad had violated the Article 36 of the Vienna Convention of Consular Relations 1963, and the death sentence awarded to Jadhav would remain suspended till the review of the conviction.

To implement the ICJ judgement, Pakistan on May 20 last promulgated an ordinance called the “International Court of Justice Review and Reconsideration Ordinance 2020”, which mandated that a petition for review and reconsideration of conviction by a military tribunal could be made to Islamabad High Court through an application within 60 days from the day it was brought into force.

New Delhi last month alleged that Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government in Islamabad not only failed to provide the High Commission of India “unimpeded” consular access to Jadhav, but also declined to hand over the copies of the documents related with the case to a lawyer in the neighbouring country after he was appointed by the Government of India to seek review of conviction and sentencing of Jadhav in the High Court.