India got consular access to the eight former Indian Navy personnel on death row in Qatar on 3 December, two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani on the sidelines of the COP28 Summit in Dubai.
”We are closely following the matter and extending all legal and consular assistance. Meanwhile, our ambassador got consular access to meet all eight of them in prison on 3rd December. This is a sensitive issue, but we will continue to follow and whatever we can share, we will do so,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said at a media briefing.
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The Indian nationals, all employees of a Doha-based company, were taken into custody in August 2022. While the Qatari authorities are yet to make the charges against them public, there have been reports that the eight Indians had been charged by a court in Qatar with spying for Israel.
“There have been two hearings. We filed an appeal, from the families, and the detainees had a final appeal,” the spokesperson said, referring to the appeals held on November 23 and 30.
Jaishankar had recently earlier met with the families of the eight prisoners and assured them that the government attached “the highest importance” to the case.
