Kulbhushan Jadhav refuses to file review petition against capital punishment

ISLAMABAD: Additional Attorney General Ahmed Irfan on Wednesday has said that retired Indian Navy officer and spy Kulbhushan Jadhav, who remained involved in terrorist activities in Pakistan, has refused to file review petition against his sentence.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, the additional attorney general said that Pakistan has taken all the steps regarding Kulbhushan case in the light of International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) decision. Pakistan law allows to review the decision but the Indian spy has refused to avail this right, he told.

Ahmed Irfan further said that Pakistan is well aware of its duties and ready to act as per ICJ instructions.

Indian Navy officer Jadhav was arrested on charges of espionage in Balochistan in March 2016 and sentenced to death by a military court a year later.

Last July, the International Court of Justice ordered Pakistan to provide consular access to Jadhav and review his death sentence.

During a press conference on Wednesday, Additional Attorney-General Ahmed Irfan and the Foreign Office’s Director-General of South Asia and SAARC Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said that Pakistan enacted on May 20 the International Court of Justice Review and Reconsideration Ordinance, 2020 which allows reviews petitions within a certain period of time.

The petitions can be filed to the Islamabad High Court, explained Irfan, adding that it in this case, it can be filed by Jadhav himself, an appointed representative or a consular official of the Indian High Commission.

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, said Irfan.

He said the government had also repeatedly written to the Indian High Commission to file the petition and initiate the process for a review before the deadline.

Pakistan is fully cognizant of its international obligations and committed to implementing the ICJ judgment in letter and spirit, he said, expressing his hope that India will follow due legal course and cooperate with courts in Pakistan to give effect to the ICJ judgment.

He added that Pakistan has offered second consular access to Jadhav. In the first round he met his mother and wife and now we have offered to let him meet his father and wife, he said.

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