'Espionage' case: Qatar accepts India's appeal against death penalty to eight navy veterans

A Qatar court has approved India’s appeal against the death penalty for eight former Indian Navy officers who were sentenced to death last month in an alleged espionage case. According to a NDTV report, citing sources, the Qatari court will review the appeal before scheduling a hearing. An appeal was filed against the death sentence last month. The eight men were arrested in August 2022 by Qatar’s intelligence agency for spying. Indian government sources had previously said the Qatari authorities have not provided the reasons for their arrest. Not many details of the case, including the alleged crime committed by these men, have been disclosed so far. Their bail petitions were rejected several times and the verdict against them was pronounced last month by the Court of First Instance in Qatar. India had described the ruling as “deeply” shocking and vowed to explore all legal options in the case. “We are deeply shocked by the verdict of the death penalty and are in touch with the family members. Our legal team is exploring all options,” Ministry of External Affairs had said after the judgment. The arrested Indian Navy veterans are Commander Purnendu Tiwari, Commander Sugunakar Pakala, Commander Amit Nagpal, Commander Sanjeev Gupta, Captain Navtej Singh Gill, Captain Birendra Kumar Verma, Captain Saurabh Vasisht and Sailor Ragesh Gopakumar. All of the former Navy officers have a distinguished service record of up to 20 years in the Indian Navy and have held important positions including that of instructors in the force. With inputs from agencies