The News Freedom
New Delhi, November 9
An appeal has been filed against the death sentence awarded to eight former Indian Navy personnel by a Qatar court last month, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson, Arindam Bagchi, said on Thursday. Giving details during a weekly media briefing, Bagchi said that the court judgement is a confidential document and was only shared with a legal team. The Indian embassy in Doha received another consular access to the detained Indians on Tuesday.
He further said that New Delhi is in touch with Qatar authorities and will continue to extend all legal and consular support to them. External Affairs Minister, Dr S Jaishankar, also met the family members of 8 veteran navy officers on October 30.
Bagchi also advised the media not to speculate anything keeping in view the sensitive nature of the case.
Former officers of the Indian Navy were sentenced to death by a court in Qatar on October 26. However, the charges against the officers were made public. The veteran navy officers who were awarded the death penalty include 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, according to media reports.
As per media reports the eight former officers worked for Dahra Global Technologies and Consulting Services, a company engaged in training Qatari navy personnel. Last August, they were picked up by Qatari intelligence authorities and incarcerated in Doha. The officers were accused of spying on the Gulf nation’s secretive programme to obtain Italian-made, high-tech submarines coated with metamaterials that make their detection by adversaries difficult.