ICJ fixes Kulbhushan case hearing for February next year: sources

Hearing is expected to last at least a week and would be carried out on a daily basis

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has fixed hearing of convicted Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav’s case in February 2019, sources privy to the matter said on Wednesday.

The hearing, which is scheduled to last at least a week, would be carried out on a daily basis next year, source further informed Express News.

The ICJ, a world court that sits at the Peace Palace in The Hague, is seized with an Indian complaint on the conviction of the Indian spy.

In July this year, Pakistan submitted its second counter-memorial to India’s arguments on the conviction of the RAW agent before the world court in The Hague. Sources had told The Express Tribune that Pakistan rebutted Indian’s allegations that Kulbhushan’s wife and mother were ‘mistreated’ when they visited to meet him last year.

Pakistan also raised the jurisdiction issue of the ICJ that India had no case to plead because it never denied that Jadhav was travelling on a passport on a cover or the assumed Muslim name ‘Mubarak Patel’, the sources added.



Moreover, some international legal experts’ opinions have also been referred to in the counter pleadings to justify that effective review of the decisions of military courts is potentially available before high courts of Pakistan. The reply has been submitted by Director India at the Foreign Office Dr Fareha Bugti along with Khawar Qureshi, QC, the agent representing Pakistan at the ICJ.

Commander Jadhav was captured in Balochistan in March 2016 and he later confessed to his association with Indian intelligence agency — Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) — and his involvement in espionage and fomenting terrorism in Pakistan.

In early 2017, the Field General Court Martial sentenced Jadhav to death, which was confirmed by Chief of the Army Staff Gen Qamar Bajwa on April 10 this year. On January 23, the ICJ gave a timeline to both Pakistan and India to file another round of memorials in the case.