Kulbhushan Jadhav, the 49-year-old Indian national sentenced to death by a military court in Pakistan, should be given consular access, the International Court of Justice ordered on Wednesday. ICJ president Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, who read out the verdict for the 16-member bench of the top UN court in The Hague, ordered Pakistan to “effectively review and reconsider” the death sentence because it had breached the international convention on consular access.
“The Court finds that Pakistan is under an obligation to provide, by means of its own choosing, effective review and reconsideration of the conviction and sentence of Mr. Jadhav, so as to ensure that full weight is given to the effect of the violation of the rights set forth in Article 36 of the Vienna Convention,” Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf ruled.
The world court, however, stopped short of accepting India’s request to cancel the military court’s death sentence handed down in April 2017 after a trial by a Pakistan army court that New Delhi has described as “farcical”.
