Pakistan has claimed that 49-year-old retired Indian Navy officer, Kulbhushan Jadhav who was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on "espionage and terrorism" charges in 2017, refued to file a review petition against his conviction. Addressing a press conference, Pakistan's additional attorney general Ahmed Irfan claimed that refused to file a petition and opted for his pending mercy plea. He also said that the Government of Pakistan has written to the Indian High Commission to file the review petition before the deadline.
"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," the Pakistani additional attorney general said.He also said that Pakistan has offered India another consular access to Jadhav, facing the death sentence and will allow his father and wife to meet him. "In the first round, he met his mother and wife and now we have offered to let him meet his father and wife," he told reporters.
Who is Kulbhushan Jadhav?
Kulbhushan Jadhav is an Indian national. he was arrested in the Pakistani province of Balochistan on charges of terrorism and spying for India's intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing. Pakistan claims the former Indian Navy officer was arrested on March 3, 2016 in Balochistan.
The Indian side, however, maintains that he was kidnapped from Iran, where he was running a business in the port city of Chabahar after a “premature retirement” from the Navy.Jadhav was identified in India as the son of Sudhir Jadhav, a retired Assistant Commissioner of Police in Mumbai. His uncle, Subhash Jadhav, was in charge of the Bandra police station in 2002.
Kulbhushan Confession
A month after his arrest, Pakistan released a video of Jadhav "confessing" to being a spy. The Ministry of External Affairs, however, rejected the video saying it was doctored and fake. In the video, Jadhav said he had been directing various activities in Karachi and Balochistan and that he was still with the Indian Navy.