THE HAGUE: The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Thursday ordered Pakistan to stay the execution Kalbhushan Jadhav, an Indian national convicted of spying.
India had earlier approached the UN court after the retired Indian naval officer and suspected spy was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court last month on charges of espionage and sabotage.
“Pakistan shall take all measures at its disposal to ensure that Mr Jadhav is not executed pending the final decision in these proceedings,” the ICJ ruled in a unanimous and binding decision on Thursday.
The Hague-based court’s president, Ronny Abraham asked Pakistan to inform the tribunal that it would implement the ruling, and stressed that ICJ decisions are binding on all state members.
The ICJ’s rulings are final and binding.
Yet, the court has no means to enforce its decisions and they have occasionally been ignored.
The hearings and the much awaited final decision, could take many more months, if not years.
In its arguments, Pakistan cited a 2008 bilateral agreement on Consular Access with India where both sides agreed that “in case of arrest, detention or sentence made on political or security grounds, each side may examine the case on its merits”.
Pakistan’s lawyers argued that Jadhav was denied consular access because the issue was one of national security.
ICJ rejected this argument.
The last time India and Pakistan took a dispute to the ICJ was in 1999 when Islamabad protested against the downing of a Pakistani navy plane that killed 16 people.
In that case, the tribunal decided it was not competent to rule in the dispute and closed the case.
