Eight former Indian Navy personnel who have been in judicial custody in the Gulf country since August 30, 2022, were recently charged with the death penalty for espionage.
According to Reuters, "The men were handed the death penalty by a court in Qatar on Thursday and were charged with spying for Israel. In India, a government official aware of Doha's stance said the Qatar authorities had accused them of spying for Israel."
The eight Navy veterans are 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.
They were working for the AI Dahra company when they were picked up by Qatar’s Ministry of Interior on August 30, 2022, for questioning. They were kept in solitary confinement and were later charge-sheeted. However, the details have not been made public. The naval veterans were later permitted to live on a twin-sharing basis.
C Kalyan Chakravarthy, brother-in-law of Sugunakar Pakala, one of the eight veterans, appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs (MEA) Minister S Jaishankar to obtain the release of the veterans.
According to Chakravarthy, Qatari authorities picked up the eight persons in the middle of the night over unsubstantiated charges, suspecting their friendly conversations and phone calls and exchanges between military attaches from India.
He alleged that enemy nations of both India and Qatar were behind this.
Chakravarthy said that the MEA spokesperson kept saying that neither was the ministry informed of any charges against these men nor did Qatar present any evidence of their alleged espionage.
He said the reports that the eight Navy veterans were spying for Israel were completely false and baseless.
The initial information about the death sentence was shared by the Court of First Instance of Qatar. There is no information about what the judgment says about the Omani owner of Dhara and a Qatari Brigadier who worked for Dhara. Both are accused of the same charges as the Indians.
Reacting to the news, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said: “We are deeply shocked by the verdict of the death penalty and are awaiting the detailed judgment. We are in touch with the family members and the legal team and we are exploring all legal options,’’ it said, adding that it will take up the verdict with the Qatari authorities.
The foreign ministry said India attaches high importance to this case and has been following it closely. “Due to the confidential nature of the proceedings of this case, it would not be appropriate to make any further comment at this juncture,” it added.
India’s ambassador to Qatar met the men in prison on October 1 after being granted consular access. India has been providing legal assistance to these officers and it will continue to seek justice for them.
It is learnt that India is yet to get a copy of the judgement by Qatar's Court of First Instance.
There is no comment by Qatar on the court verdict.
(With Inputs from Yeshi Seli, PTI, and AP)