LONDON/NEW DELHI: By sentencing Indian national
Kulbushan Jadhav
to death, Pakistan's military court system has once again showed how it "rides roughshod over international standards",
Amnesty International
said on Monday, questioning the secretive court's ability to dispense justice.
"
The death sentence given to Kulbushan Jadhav shows yet again how Pakistan's military court system rides roughshod over international standards," Biraj Patnaik, South Asia director, Amnesty International, said in response to Pakistan military court sentencing Jadhav to death for alleged spying.
"Stripping defendants of their rights and operating in notorious secrecy, military courts do not dispense justice but travesty it. They are an inherently abusive system that are best left to deal with issues of military discipline, not any other crimes," Patnaik said in a statement.
Amnesty opposes the death penalty at all times and in all circumstances, regardless of who is accused, the crime, guilt or innocence, or the method of execution, he said.
A Pakistan military court
sentenced Jadhav to death after he was convicted of "espionage and sabotage activities".
The award of the death sentence to the 46-year-old former Naval officer at a court-martial was confirmed by Pakistan's army chief
Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa
on Monday.
The prominent rights group also noted that over 87 executions were recorded in Pakistan in 2016 and more than ver 360 death sentences were recorded in the country last year.
It said that over 6,000 people are known to be under death sentence at the end of 2016 in Pakistan, which is among the world's top 5 executioners.
If Pak executes Jadhav, it'll be a premeditated murder: IndiaReacting strongly, India on Monday said it will regard as "premeditated murder" if Pakistan carries out the death sentence, awarded to its national Kulbhushan Jadhav "without observing basic norms of law and justice".
Foreign secretary S Jaishankar summoned Pakistan high commissioner to India Abdul Basit and gave a strongly-worded demarche, which said the proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav were "farcical" as there were no "credible evidence" against him.
The proceedings that have led to the sentence against Jadhav are "farcical in the absence of any credible evidence" against him, it said, adding it is significant that
Indian High Commission
was not even informed that Jadhav was being brought to trial.
"Senior Pakistani figures have themselves cast doubt about the adequacy of evidence. The claim in the ISPR release that Jadhav was provided with a defending officer during the so-called trial is clearly absurd in the circumstances.
"If this sentence against an Indian citizen, awarded without observing basic norms of law and justice, is carried out, the government and people of India will regard it as a case of premeditated murder," the foreign secretary said in the demarche.