A hard-won reprieve

The commutation of the death sentence by a Qatar Court for the eight former Indian Navy personnel has been received with immense relief in India.

The Court on Thursday replaced their previous sentences to varied prison terms, the details of which are still awaited.

A major part of credit for the reprieve goes to Prime Minister Narendra Modi who took up the case with Amir of Qatar on the sidelines of the COP28 conference concluded earlier this month in Dubai.

The nature of the charges against the eight personnel is not fully known except that they were held for allegedly passing sensitive information to Israeli agencies.

The retired Indian Navy personnel were employed by Qatari firm Dahra Global Technologies and Consultancy Services for training the Arab nation’s armed forces.

The private firm is now defunct. Given the nature of their job and the locale not much details are likely to emerge even in future for the commoners as well as the media.

The fact that the Ministry of External Affairs pursued the cases and provided the aggrieved consular as well as legal services ever since the death sentences were pronounced on October 28 serves as an index of the handling the issue with extreme sensitivity it deserved.

More of this would be required in winning them freedom from the prison and their repatriation to the home country.

Dealing with Qatar among the GCC nations is not like dealing with its other member countries. It involves high level of dexterity as it is a country which maintains diplomatic ties with Israel as it does with India even while hosting leaders of the Hamas resistance movement and playing intermediary role between extreme adversaries.

That MEA measured upto the task lends a crown to its glory. If it succeeds in convincing the courts to permit the convicts in the case to pass their term in India, it will further ease the worries and distress of the concerned families.