New Delhi: In a significant diplomatic victory for India, the former Navy officers incarcerated in Qatar jail are set to be released soon, said sources in the Ministry of External Affairs Ministry (MEA).
The big breakthrough comes days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi meet with Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad, on the sidelines of COP-28 in Dubai, earlier this month. After their meet, the MEA didn’t reveal the contours of meeting but had stated that the two leaders discussed about strengthening bilateral ties and also on the well-being of Indian community in the Gulf nation.
Notably, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has been pursuing the case of 8 ex-Navy officials on death row in Qatar and also pushing for their release.
The MEA in a statement yesterday said that the government was doing everything to ensure how the jailed former naval officers could be brought back home.
The Ministry of External Affairs has announced that 8 Indian former Naval officers will soon be released from Qatar. This comes after Prime Minister Modi raised the issue at the highest level. We are grateful for this positive development and look forward to their safe return… pic.twitter.com/M8augiiLk5
— THE SQUADRON (@THE_SQUADR0N) December 22, 2023
Earlier this month, the Indian envoy met the incarcerated ex-navy officials on death row in Qatar.
“This case is now in [Qatar’s] Court of Appeal and there have been three hearings…on November 23, November 30 and December 7. Meanwhile, our ambassador in Doha got consular access…to meet all the eight men on December 3.
The news of Indians on death row in Qatar comes in back of 18 people getting pardon by the Qatar ruler on December 18. However, the MEA has not yet confirmed about the name of Indians in that ‘pardoned list’.
“We certainly have not received any indication that these eight are involved in that, and as you know, the case is going on and I’d be a little surprised that this would happen while the case is going on,” Bagchi told the press.
For the unversed, the eight men were decorated naval officers commanding warships in Indian Navy and were given death penalty by Qatar’s Court of First Instance on October 26 after being detained for more than a year on undeclared charges. Their sentencing came when they were employed with a subsidiary of Dahra Engineering & Security Services in Oman. This provided training to Qatar’s armed forces, however, it closed down in May this year.
