Pakistan’s foreign ministry on Sunday announced that India would get consular access to former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, who is in jail in the country on espionage charges, on Monday “in line with Vienna Convention on consular relations, International Court of Justice judgement and the laws of Pakistan”. Jadhav is on death row in Pakistan.

Last month, the Ministry of External Affairs had said it received a proposal from Pakistan to grant consular access to Jadhav. The access was to be granted the following day but it did not materialise due to differences between the two sides on the terms of access.

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In July, the International Court of Justice had concluded that Pakistan had violated the Vienna Convention in its treatment of Jadhav. The court found that Pakistan had breached international laws by not providing India consular access to the former Navy officer, and ordered Islamabad not to execute him at the moment.

However, the court rejected India’s demands for Jadhav’s release, and instead said Pakistan would have to decide how to review his trial and conviction. Both India and Pakistan claimed the court’s verdict as their victories.

Jadhav was sentenced to death in 2016. His execution was stayed after India moved the international court against the verdict in May 2017. India contended in the court in the Hague that the lack of consular access was a violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Article 36 of convention says consular officers have the right to visit a national of their country detained or taken into custody on foreign shores “to converse and correspond with him and to arrange for his legal representation”. India maintains that Jadhav was working on his private business in Iran when he was kidnapped by Pakistan.

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