The Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced that the Court of Appeal of Qatar has decided to commute the death sentences of eight Indian nationals working for Doha-based Al Dahra Global.
According to the MEA, the detailed judgment from the Court of Appeal has yet to be released. The MEA also stated that the Indian ambassador to Qatar was present in the court for the announcement of the judgment, along with the family members of the eight men. The MEA concluded, writing:
We have stood by them [the eight men] since the beginning of the matter and we will continue to extend all consular and legal assistance. We will also continue to take up the matter with the Qatari authorities. Due to the confidential and sensitive nature of proceedings of this case, it would not be appropriate to make any further comment at this juncture.
The eight men, who were all former Navy officers, were arrested in 2022. While the Qatari government has not made the charges against the men public, some media sources have claimed they were arrested for spying on behalf of Israel. In October, the Court of First Instance of Qatar sentenced the eight men to death. Throughout the men’s incarceration, the Indian government has been granted consular access and the men have been allowed contact with their families. Retired Major General Satbir Singh, the Chairman of the Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement, has claimed the men were traveling to Qatar in order to train Qatari navy personnel. Singh has also claimed that some of the men are elderly and have severe health concerns.
According to the MEA, there are currently around 746,550 Indian nationals living in Qatar, one of the largest populations globally. More than 52% of the population of Qatar are foreign workers, with 89% of the labor force being made up of foreign laborers, a large portion of which are Southeast Asian according the US State Department. Qatar’s treatment of Southeast Asian foreign laborers was criticized globally during the preparation for the 2022 World Cup. Throughout the preparation for the World Cup, 6,500 migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka died according to numbers calculated by the Guardian. There were also rampant allegations of Southeast Asian foreign nationals being forced into unpaid labor leading up to the World Cup.
