ISLAMABAD: The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has set April 17 for India to file a second memorial in the case of convicted Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav, while Pakistan will have to submit a counter-memorial by July 17, effectively giving a new timeline under which the hearing of the case has a slight chance in 2018, according to the Express Tribune.
The chances of the case being heard in ICJ are low as after the submission of the memorials by both the countries, the two-month summer vacations of ICJ judges start in August, after which the court will take up cases that have already been fixed before Kulbhushan Jadhav’s case.
The ICJ on May 18 last year halted the execution of Jadhav, who was sentenced to death by a military court on April 10 after being convicted on charges of terrorism and espionage.
Jadhav alias Hussain Mubarak Patel was apprehended on March 3, 2016, after he illegally crossed into Pakistan via Iran border.
On September 13 last year, India submitted a 22-page memorandum wherein it objected to Jadhav being tried by a military court in Pakistan.
While submitting a 1,700-page counter-memorial in the ICJ on December 13 last year, Pakistan rejected the Indian objection of not giving consular access to Jadhav, saying the provision of such access under the Vienna Convention is only for legitimate visitors, and not spies.
Pakistan said that since India did not deny that Jadhav was travelling with an assumed Muslim name, they have no case to plead.
Pakistan further said that sending Jadhav for espionage and funding terrorist activities were some of the reasons that disentitle India from invoking jurisdiction of the ICJ.
