NEW DELHI: The appeal filed by the legal team appointed by India to challenge the death penalty awarded to eight naval veterans imprisoned in Qatar’s Doha since August 30, 2022, will come up for hearing on Thursday.
The Qatar’s Court of First Instance had passed a judgment on October 26, awarding death penalty to eight Indian naval veterans — Captain Navtej Singh Gill, Captain Birendra Kumar Verma, Captain Saurabh Vasisht, Commander Amit Nagpal, Commander Purnendu Tiwari, Commander Sugunakar Pakala, Commander Sanjeev Gupta, and sailor Ragesh — who were employees of the Al Dahra company based in Doha.
The Indian government had expressed deep shock at the judgment. “We are deeply shocked by the verdict of the death penalty and are in touch with the family members. Our legal team is exploring all options,” Ministry of External Affairs had said after the judgment. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had, earlier this month, said an appeal has been filed in the case. India had also got another round of consular access to the detainees on November 7.
“The judgment is confidential. There is a court of first instance that gave the judgment, which was shared with the legal team. Considering all legal options, an appeal has been filed. We are in touch with the Qatari authorities,” MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on November 9. Meanwhile, family members of the jailed naval veterans had a second meeting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar earlier this month. This is the second interaction that the families have had with the minister in a month.
“The families are hoping against hope that the appeal will be considered. There will be two more appeals filed in this court, if this appeal isn’t accepted,” said a source. Details of the Qatar court’s judgment have not yet been made public. Qatar has not issued any statement on the same either. There were talks that the families were made to sign an indemnity bond in order to know details of the judgment. Some families had reservations on signing of such a bond.
Meanwhile, India is holding back-channel talks involving other countries to help in the repatriation of its naval veterans. The US and Turkey are amongst the countries that have been approached regarding this issue, according to a source. “The US could get Qatar and Egypt to mediate for the release of hostages and bring about a humanitarian ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict on Wednesday. This has raised our hope for a similar mediation for our naval veterans,” said a source.
Back-channel talks
India is holding back-channel talks involving other countries to help in the repatriation of its naval veterans. The US and Turkey are two countries that have been approached. “The US could get Qatar and Egypt to mediate for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war on Wednesday. This has raised our hope for a similar mediation,” said a source.