Death sentences of eight Indian Navy veterans reduced to jail terms in Qatar

In a major relief to eight former Indian Navy personnel detained in Qatar and facing death penalty, the Court of Appeal has commuted the death sentence. India's Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday, December 28, released a statement saying they are waiting for a detained judgment.In October, a court in Qatar sentenced as many as eight former Indian Navy personnel to death who were detained in the country for over a year.

In August 2022, Qatar detained eight former Indian Navy officers on suspicion of working as spies for Israel while they were employed by a company in Qatar. The former Indian Navy officers  Captain Navtej Singh Gill, Captain Birendra Kumar Verma, Captain Saurabh Vasisht, Commander Amit Nagpal, Commander Purnendu Tiwari, Commander Sugunakar Pakala, Commander Sanjeev Gupta, and Sailor Ragesh — were arrested by Qatar intelligence agency from Doha on August 30, 2022.The bail pleas of the Navy veterans were rejected several times by Qatari authorities