India explores options for release of ex-Navy personnel awarded death sentence in Qatar

New Delhi: India is exploring several options to secure release of eight former Indian Navy personnel awarded death sentence by a Qatari court on charges of spying for Israel. ET has learnt that options include the possibility of royal pardon from the Emir of Qatar.

India is putting in place a diplomatic exercise weighing various options with several interlocutors in Qatar, ET has learnt.

Incidentally, Qatar does not have a widespread record of executing people lodged in its jail. According to Amnesty International, the country executed one condemned Nepali migrant worker in 2020, that too after a 20-year hiatus. The Gulf state had once said that a death sentence was equivalent to a life sentence.


The former Indian Navy personnel were working with a private company Al Dahra, which was later closed. The charges against them were never made public.

External affairs minister S Jaishankar had met families of the eight accused on Monday and assured them that Indian government would make all efforts to secure their release. Indian Navy chief Admiral Hari Kumar on Monday said the Centre was making "every effort" to secure the release of eight Navy veterans.

Indian diaspora in Qatar plays a significant role in bilateral ties. It is estimated that there are nearly 700,000 Indians in the Gulf country.