New Delhi: The legal team of eight jailed veterans of the Indian Navy in Qatar, whose death sentence has been commuted to imprisonment for various terms, will decide the next course of action and have a 60-day window to appeal, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said Thursday.
The appeal will be filed before the Gulf country’s highest court (also known as Court of Cassation).
This comes after the Court of Appeal in Qatar commuted the death sentences of the Indian nationals and instead offered them prison sentences of varying durations, including life term, to some.
“The legal team has 60 days for the appeal to be made before the Court of Cassation, which is the highest court in Qatar. It is for the legal team now to decide the next course of action,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a weekly press briefing.
On 26 October, the eight Navy veterans were handed the death penalty by Qatar’s Court of First Instance for alleged spying.
The legal team then moved the Qatari Court of Appeal, which reduced the sentences.
“Now, we have the judgement order which is a confidential document. The legal team has access to it. What we can confirm is that the death penalty has now been converted into varying prison sentences for the eight Indian nationals,” Jaiswal added.
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‘Relationship with China not normal’
Asked about India’s expectations for its bilateral relationship with China amid an ongoing border standoff, the MEA spokesperson termed ties between the two countries as abnormal but added that lines of communications remain open.
“It is a relationship which is not normal, but we’ve had dialogues both on the military and diplomatic side. In the months of October and November, we had both these engagements. The idea is that we engage so that we can have some sort of resolution,” he said.
From 9 to 10 October, the 20th round of India-China Corps Commander Level Meeting was held at Chushul-Moldo border where both sides agreed to maintain the momentum of dialogue and negotiations. They also committed to maintain peace and tranquillity on the ground in the border areas in the interim.
On 30 November, the 28th Meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) was held where both sides held an in-depth discussion to resolve the remaining issues and achieve complete disengagement in Eastern Ladakh.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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