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

 

According to reports, Pakistan has claimed that Kulbhushan Jadhav has refused to file a review petition for reconsideration of his death sentence and conviction and instead wants to go ahead with mercy plea. Pakistan has now reportedly invited India for a second consular access for Kulbhushan Jadhav.

 

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Wednesday, Pakistan’s Additional Attorney General Ahmed Irfan claimed that incarcerated Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav had refused to file a review petition against the death sentence imposed on him.

 

He said that Kulbhushan Jadhav was invited to file a petition on June 17, 2020 for review and reconsideration of his sentence and conviction. However, exercising his legal right, he refused to file a petition for review and reconsideration of his sentence and conviction and insisted on the mercy petition he filed on April 17, 2017.

 

The Pakistan government also announced that it had granted India consular access to Jadhav for a second time and hoped India would respond to its offer. Jadhav's family had visited him amid intense media glare in December 2017.

 

Jadhav, a 49-year-old former Indian Navy officer, was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court in 2017 on charges of "espionage and terrorism” while India firmly said that Pakistan had kidnapped Jadhav from Iran where he was working.

 

Pakistan’s claim also seems highly fictitious as the International Court of Justice in July last year had specifically asked Pakistan to stay Jadhav’s execution until it reconsidered his conviction and sentence. ICJ, by a vote of 15-1, had upheld India's claim that Pakistan has committed an egregious violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations on several counts and had ordered Islamabad to carry out an effective "review and reconsideration" of his conviction.