The International Court of Justice (ICJ) President Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf has submitted a report to United Nations (UN) Secretary General Antonio Guterres, wherein he said that Pakistan honoured its commitment of granting consular access to Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav.
The ICJ president said that on August 1, Pakistan had notified the international court about its commitment to implement the July 17 verdict as it had informed the Indian spy of his rights under the Vienna Convention, and had invited Indian officials to visit him.
“In particular, Pakistan stated that Mr Jadhav had been immediately informed of his rights under the Vienna Convention and that the consular post of the High Commission of India in Islamabad had been invited to visit him on 2 August 2019,” the report stated.
Writing about the reparation and remedies in line with the court’s ruling, the ICJ president said that an appropriate remedy was effective review and reconsideration of Jadhav’s conviction and sentence.
“The Court moreover clarified what it considered to be the requirements of effective review and reconsideration. It stressed that Pakistan must ensure that full weight is given to the effect of the violation of the rights set forth in the Vienna Convention and guarantee that the violation and the possible prejudice caused by the violation are fully examined,” the report stated.
“While the Court left the choice of means to provide effective review and reconsideration to Pakistan, it noted that effective review and reconsideration presupposes the existence of a procedure that is suitable for this purpose and observed that it is normally the judicial process that is suited to this task,” the report added.
On July 17, the ICJ rejected had India’s plea for Jadhav’s acquittal, ruling that the convicted Indian spy be allowed consular access immediately and asking Pakistan to ensure “effective review and reconsideration of his conviction and sentences”.
Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf had announced the verdict in the presence of both Pakistani and Indian delegations.
The ICJ had rejected all other remedies sought by India, which included the annulment of the military court decision convicting Jadhav, restricting Pakistani from executing the sentence, securing Jadhav’s release and ordering his return to India.
The ICJ had said that even though it had found Pakistan in violation of Article 36 the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR), “it is not the conviction and sentence of Mr. Jadhav which are to be regarded as a violation of Article 36 of the Vienna Convention.”
The most the ICJ had said it could do was to order Pakistan to cease violation of Article 36 and review the case in light of how that violation may have affected the case’s outcome.
“The Court notes that Pakistan acknowledges that the appropriate remedy in the present case would be effective review and reconsideration of the conviction and sentence,” it had observed.
To this end, Pakistan was directed to immediately inform Jadhav of his rights under Article 36, grant him consular access, and then review the case while considering, under the laws of Pakistan, how not doing so earlier may have impacted the case.
On September 2, Pakistan granted consular access to Jadhav and allowed Indian officials to meet the convicted Indian spy.
Jadhav, a convicted Indian spy, is on a death row in Pakistan for his involvement in terrorist activities after he was arrested from Balochistan in 2016 over espionage charges and subsequently sentenced to death by a military court.
