Pakistan to amend Army Act to grant Kulbhushan Jadhav right to appeal in civilian court

The amended law will allow Kulbhushan Jadhav to appeal against his conviction in a civilian court. A Pakistan Army court had sentenced him to death on charges of espionage.

Kulbhushan Jadhav | @ruzhan9 | Twitter

Islamabad: Pakistan is preparing to amend the Army Act to allow death-row convict Kulbhushan Jadhav the right to file an appeal against his conviction in a civilian court, according to defence sources here.

Jadhav, 49, a retired Indian Navy officer, was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of “espionage and terrorism” after a closed trial in April 2017. India has maintained that Jadhav was kidnapped from Iran where he had business interests after retiring from the Navy.

Defence sources said that the government was working on a draft to amend the Army Act to allow Jadhav the right to file an appeal against his conviction in a civilian court to implement the International Court of Justice’s July 17 verdict.

The amended law will outline the procedure to seek redress in the civil courts against sentence by Army courts.

In a major victory for India, the ICJ on July 17 ruled that Pakistan must review the death sentence given to Jadhav. India had argued that consular access was being denied to its national in violation of the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

Rejecting Pakistan’s objection to admissibility of the Indian application in the case, the court in its 42-page order held that “a continued stay of execution constitutes an indispensable condition for the effective review” of the sentence of Jadhav that had strained relations between the two neighbouring countries.

The bench, however, rejected some remedies sought by India, including annulment of the military court’s decision convicting Jadhav, his release and safe passage to India.

After much dilly-dallying, Pakistan on September 2 granted India consular access to Jadhav under the direction of the ICJ.

Pakistan claims that its security forces arrested Jadhav from restive Balochistan province on March 3, 2016 after he reportedly entered from Iran.