New Delhi "shocked" as Qatar sentences 8 Indian citizens to death

Qatar has sentenced eight Indian citizens to death (Illustration photo: Gulf News).

A Qatari court has sentenced eight Indians arrested in the country last year to death, New Delhi said on October 26, adding it was “deeply shocked” by the verdict.

The Indian government said it took the incident very seriously and would "discuss the verdict with the Qatari authorities".

Local media said the eight Indian men, who worked for a private company in Qatar, were arrested on suspicion of espionage in August 2022. Reuters could not confirm the information.

Neither the Indian nor Qatari governments have yet made public the charges against the eight men, who are all former Indian naval officers, Reuters reported.

A spokesman for India's Ministry of External Affairs did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The Indian government said it would be "inappropriate to make any further comments at this stage" due to the "confidential nature of the proceedings".

Indian Foreign Ministry officials, including Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, had earlier said the exact nature of the charges against the eight Indian men was "not entirely clear".

More than 800,000 Indian citizens live and work in Qatar.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-gioi/new-delhi-bi-soc-vi-qatar-tuyen-tu-hinh-8-cong-dan-an-do-20231026215059475.htm