Eight former Indian Navy officers have been handed a death penalty by a Qatar court. The group had been in jail for over a year.
Navtej Gill, Birendra Verma, Saurabh Vasisht, Amit Nagpal, Purnendu Tiwari, Sugunakar Pakala, Sanjeev Gupta and Ragesh were listed in a report.
Former Commander Purnendu Tiwari was presented with the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award in 2019 by then-Indian President Ram Nath Kovind.
The ex-officers were reportedly blamed for spying on Qatar’s highly specialized and exclusive submarines for Israeli intelligence.
The eight men were reportedly employed at Dahra Global Technologies and Consultancy Services, a private defence firm in Qatar.
The ex-officers have been in jail since August 2022. They were reportedly moved from solitary confinement in July'23 and were allowed phone access.
India said it would challenge the death penalty. ‘We are deeply shocked by the verdict of death penalty and are awaiting the detailed judgement.’