Last year, a court in Qatar sentenced eight members of the Indian navy to death for espionage on behalf of Israel.
- Qatar commuted the death sentences of former navy officials in December 2023.
- They were employees of a company that worked on a secret submarine program.
- The post comes after Prime Minister Modi's meeting with the Emir of Qatar at COP28.
Seven of the eight former members of the Indian Navy returned to their country in the early hours of Monday after being sentenced to death for espionage on behalf of Israel in Qatar more than three and a half months ago.
Last year, Qatar's Court of Appeal commuted the death sentences of eight naval officers on December 28 and sentenced them to prison terms of varying lengths. mint reported.
The naval officers included Captain Navtej Singh Gill, Captain Saurabh Vashisht, Commander Purenendu Tiwari, Captain Birendra Kumar Verma, Commander Sugunakar Pakala, Commander Sanjeev Gupta, Commander Amit Nagpal and Seaman Ragesh.
According to Indian media, the navy officers, who were arrested in August 2022, were senior employees of Dahra Global Technologies and Consulting Services, a company advising on a Qatari program aimed at obtaining Italian-made high-tech submarines that could evade radar detection.
The organization that had used about 75 Indian nationals, mostly former members of the naval force, closed in May 2023. Al Jazeera reported.
After a few months in detention, Qatari officials revealed that the men were spying on the country's secret submarine program for Israel.
In October 2023, Qatar's Court of First Instance sentenced naval officers to death in a case of alleged espionage.
However, on the sidelines of the Conference of the Parties (COP 28) climate sustainability summit held in Dubai in December last year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a “good conversation” with the Emir of Qatar, Tamim Bin Hamad, on being part of the Indian community in Qatar.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: “The Indian National Congress joins the entire nation in its relief and happiness that the eight convicted former Indian Navy personnel previously to death by a court in Qatar have been released and have returned home.”
