Kulbhushan Jadhav has refused to file review plea against his death sentence, claims Pakistan

The Pakistan government on Wednesday claimed that former Indian naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav has refused to file a review petition against his death sentence, the Hindustan Times reported. Pakistan offered India a second consular access to Jadhav.

Jadhav was sentenced to death in 2016 in Pakistan for allegedly spying for India. His execution was stayed after India moved the International Court of Justice against the verdict in May 2017. India had contended in the court in The Hague that the lack of consular access to Jadhav was a violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Following the court’s judgement, Pakistan allowed India access to the former naval officer.

In its July 2019 judgement, the International Court of Justice had concluded that Pakistan had violated the Vienna Convention in its treatment of Jadhav and ordered Islamabad not to execute him at the moment.

“In the first round, he met his mother and wife and now we have offered to let him meet his father and wife,” Additional Attorney General Ahmed Irfan said at a press conference in Islamabad on Wednesday. Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri, the director-general of South Asia and SAARC at the Pakistan Foreign Office, was also present at the press conference. Irfan and Chaudhri told the media that in May, Pakistan enacted the International Court of Justice Review and Reconsideration Ordinance, 2020, which allows convicts to file review petitions within a stipulated time period.

“The petitions can be filed before the Islamabad High Court,” Irfan said. “On June 17 we invited Jadhav to file a petition for the reconsideration of his conviction and offered him legal representation but he refused to file the petition and instead preferred to follow up on his pending mercy petition.”

Irfan claimed that the Pakistan government has repeatedly written to the Indian High Commission to file the review petition before the deadline. “Pakistan is fully cognizant of its international obligations and committed to implementing the ICJ judgment in letter and spirit,” he said.