A day after the death sentence was handed down by a Qatari court to eight Indians, as the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) awaits the detailed judgment in the case, experts said India must pursue all efforts, including political appeals at the highest levels to ensure the Naval veterans, reportedly accused of espionage, are brought back to India.
“Multiple options exist,” said Syed Akbaruddin, former Indian envoy to the United Nations and an expert in the Gulf region, pointing out that apart from the legal appeals process, a final decision on the implementation of the judicial outcome could be made by Qatar’s head of state. He also pointed to a 2015 agreement on the transfer of sentenced prisoners in case India’s appeal for clemency is accepted. “In short, there is enough space to address the sensitive but unprecedented issue in a manner that preserves the trajectory of bilateral ties,” Mr. Akbaruddin added.
In March 2015, during the visit of Qatari Foreign Minister Dr. Khalid Bin Mohammed Al Attiyah to India, one of the agreements exchanged between the two countries was on “Transfer of Sentenced Persons”. “Under this agreement, Indian prisoners convicted in Qatar can be brought to India to serve the remaining part of their sentence. Similarly Qatari citizens convicted in India can be sent to their home country to serve their sentence. This agreement would enable the sentenced persons to be near their families and would help in the process of their social rehabilitation,” the MEA had stated. A year later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi travelled to Doha for a bilateral visit where several other agreements were signed, and also met Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in 2019.
