The Eight
former Naval officers, who have been imprisoned in Qatari jails, have been given
consular access and Indian Embassy officials, including Ambassador Vipul, have
met them, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.
Addressing a
press conference, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that a legal team is looking into the appeal aspect as 60 days have
been provided to file the same.
“Our ambassador, along with our embassy
officials, met the eight detained. The legal team is looking into the appeal
aspect. There is a period of 60 days within which they have to file this
appeal,” Jaiswal said.
“On December
28, the court of appeal had given their verdict. Now, the matter is to go to
the court of secession, which will be decided by the legal team…We still have
some time. The consular access we had, our ambassador went and met and looked
after their well-being,” he said.
The former Indian Navy officers have been
jailed since October 2022 on charges of spying on a submarine program. The charges against them, have not yet
been made public officially.
The retired
naval personnel were initially sentenced to death by a Qatar court. However,
the court commuted their death penalty and reduced it to jail terms.