ICJ declines Pak plea to show Jadhav 'confession', India happy

The Hague: The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Monday denied permission to Pakistan to play a purported "confessional" video of retired Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav at a public hearing at the Hague.

To support its allegations that Jadhav was sent by India to carry out spying and espionage activities in Pakistan and was arrested from the restive Balochistan province, Pakistan delegation at the ICJ sought permission to play the purported video showing the Indian national admitting that he was a "spy".

However, the ICJ denied permission to the Pakistani side to play the video at the hearing, Indian officials in New Delhi said.

The ICJ denying permission to Pakistan to play the "confessional" video of Jadhav during the public hearing was a setback for Islamabad, India's lead attorney Harish Salve said.

Asked whether it was a setback for Pak, Salve said, "Obviously."

"If you want to show something and it helps your case if you are denied that right, it's a setback. So, in that sense, yeah! They wanted to show it and that opportunity was taken away," he told a news channel.

"They did not allow it. We objected and the court felt it was not appropriate," Salve said.

Earlier, India demanded the immediate suspension of Jadhav's death sentence, expressing fears that Pakistan could execute him even before the hearing at ICJ.

On May 8, India moved the ICJ against the death penalty handed down to Jadhav by a Pakistan military court, alleging violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

On May 9, the highest court in the UN gave Jadhav a lease of life.

India, in its appeal to the ICJ, had asserted that Jadhav was kidnapped from Iran where he was involved in business activities after retiring from the Indian Navy. India has denied that he has any connection with the government.