New Delhi, Feb 19: Pakistan has failed to satisfy minimum due process in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case and is using the Indian, detained on alleged grounds of terrorism, as a propaganda tool, India said at the latest hearing at the International Court of Justice on Monday.
"Pakistan's story is solely based on rhetoric and not facts," said counsel Harish Salve, arguing India's case. He demanded India be provided consular access and said Jadhav's continued detention be declared unlawful. Pakistan "knowingly, brazenly and willingly" violated international law, said Salve.
Salve attacked Jadhav's trial by a secret military court in Pakistan which was opaque to the outside world. Pakistan provided no "credible evidence" to show his involvement in any act of terrorism and Jadhav's purported confession clearly appeared to be "coerced", the counsel said.
"There is no manner of doubt that Pakistan was using this as a propaganda tool. Pakistan was bound to grant consular access without delay," Salve demanded in a long submission.
India insisted, as it had earlier too, that Jadhav’s detention is unlawful under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Salve demanded that the ICJ order Jadhav’s release immediately keeping in mind that Pakistan failed to observe even “the minimum standards of due process” in sentencing him to death.
“Military courts of Pakistan cannot command the confidence of this court and should not be sanctified by a direction to them to review and reconsider the case. India seeks annulment of Jadhav’s conviction, and directions that he be released forthwith,” said Salve.
The hearing comes in the middle of heightened tensions between India and Pakistan over the Pulwama attack. While India has based its case on the Vienna Convention, Pakistan is again likely to argue that the 2008 bilateral agreement on consular access supersedes the convention as Jadhav was held for espionage.
Salve argued that Pakistan did not uphold Article 36 of the Vienna Convention that states consular access applies to all nationals, regardless of espionage claims in Jadhav’s case. “This quite plainly is an egregious violation of Pakistan’s obligations under Article 36 of the Vienna Convention,” said Salve.Noting that military courts in Pakistan are not independent, Salve said the working of such courts have been censured by the European Parliament.
“A foreign detainee has the right to life, the right to a fair trial and an impartial judiciary. However, Pakistan has sentenced 161 civilians to death in their military courts in opaque proceedings in the last two years,” Salve said.
“Considering the trauma he (Jadhav) has been subjected to over the past three years, it would be in the interest of justice of making human rights a reality to direct his release,” Salve said on the first day of the hearing.
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