8 INDIAN NAVY OFFICERS GET DEATH PENALTY IN QATAR FOR “SPYING FOR ISRAEL”

Thu 26 October 2023:

A Qatar court has handed a death sentence to eight former Indian Navy officers, who have been detained in the country since August 2022.

The Indian Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday, October 26, said that it is deeply shocked and is awaiting the detailed judgement by the Court of First Instance in the case.

“We are in touch with the family members and the legal team, and we are exploring all legal options,” the ministry said in a statement.

‘SPYING’ FOR ISRAEL: EIGHT FORMER INDIAN NAVY OFFICIALS FACE DEATH IN QATAR

The ministry stressed that they attach high importance to the case and have been following it closely.

“We will continue to extend all consular and legal assistance. We will also take up the verdict with Qatari authorities,” the ministry said, refusing to make any further comment at this juncture due to the confidential nature of the proceedings of the case.

New Delhi has had consular access to the eight prisoners and has tried to secure their release, but has been told by Doha that evidence suggests the former officers passed on intelligence to Israel, Indian news outlet ThePrint reported.

What had happened?

Indian media reported that they were senior employees of Dahra Global Technologies and Consulting Services, a company advising on a Qatari programme aimed at obtaining high-tech Italian-made submarines that could evade radar detection.

Pakistani newspaper The News International reported in May this year, that the company is now being shut down by Qatar, with as many as 75 Indian nationals, the majority of whom are former navy personnel, being told they were being let go by the end of May.

Qatar had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in 2020 with Italian-based shipbuilding firm Fincantieri SpA to build submarines as part of a larger project involving the construction of a naval base and maintenance of its military fleet. The MoU has reportedly not been implemented.

A Fincantieri representative told Al Jazeera that the company currently has no existing contracts for submarines with Qatar, but continues work on finishing seven surface vessels – including four corvettes, one amphibious vessel and two patrol vessels – based on a 2016 agreement with the Qatari Ministry of Defence.

In August 2022, eight retired Indian Navy personnel working for a defence services provider company in Qatar were taken detained by the Qatari intelligence service in Doha. Since then, these men were kept in solitary confinement without the Qatari authorities specifying the reason for the detention to the families of the eight men.

They were picked up by the State Security Bureau, the Qatari intelligence agency and the Indian Embassy first learnt about the arrests in mid-September. On September 30, the men were allowed “brief telephonic contact” with family members. The first consular access, a visit by an official of the Indian embassy, was granted on October 3, more than a month after they were taken into custody. Since then, they have been allowed weekly phone calls to family members.

The eight veterans — Captain Navtej Singh Gill, Captain Saurabh Vasisht, Commander Purenendu Tiwari, Captain Birendra Kumar Verma, Commander Sugunakar Pakala, Commander Sanjeev Gupta, Commander Amit Nagpal and Sailor Ragesh — were working at Dahra Global Technologies and Consultancy Services, a defence services provider company owned by an Omani national, a retired squadron leader of the Royal Omani Air Force. He too was arrested along with the eight Indians, but was released in November.

India’s External affairs minister S Jaishankar had told Parliament, last year, that it was a “sensitive” matter and affirmed the case was a matter of “priority” to the Indian government.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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