What Was The Reason, Why Qatar Gives 8 Navy Officer Death Penalty

Introduction

India can't pressurize Qatar in the way that it did Canada. They go to the house of these 8 Navy officers at night and say that there was a screenshot of a presentation in Italy which has been leaked. Metamaterial is used. Its confidential information was shared by the Indian Officers with Israel. Oman's government had saved its civilian. But we've been trapped until this date in it. None of the Indians are allowed to work in it. But this case had so much secrecy that details regarding next hearing isn't shared by this law firm. When Nupur Sharma's case occurred, then Qatar was the first country who gave a statement There's a race between India & Pakistan as well regarding this submarine. But for India this was a huge defeat at a diplomatic level.
India's 8 retired Navy officers, among which some were gold medallists some got Pravasi Bharatiya honour have been death penalty in Qatar. This isn't a small matter for any country. Now many questions come to our mind what is this matter & from this entire incident what is the relation with Israel The steps taken by India for it can it abolish this punishment for what did these Navy officers go there & in the issue of detailed sharing of Qatar's submarines how did our Indian Navy officers got involved in it so what did actually happen we'll discuss.

Background History

1916

In the west of India we've Qatar. From year 1916 Qatar was under the Britishers. And very poor as well at that time they used to do Pearl trade and fishing. But when year 1939 arrived, then their fate shines. This was the time when with the help of Britishers, in Qatar's Jebel Dukhan area Oil was discovered. This was towards Qatar's south-western coast. After this, comes year 1971 & in this year Britishers leave Qatar. And in the same year 1971 Qatar hits its biggest jackpot when natural gas field was discovered in Persian Gulf. And this area comes mostly in Qatar's economic zone.
So, earlier Qatar's entire production was led by Bristish army but when Britishers left in 1971, then Qatar was a Vassal state of Saudi Arabia. Like, vassal country - it started acting like it. Means it started to live under the guidance of Saudi Arabia but when Qatar discovered Natural gas and oil, then Qatar got money and its king was - Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani He left the guidance of Saudi & started working as an independent country. He started handling the security on its own. Now, this wasn't liked by Saudi but Qatar slowly started increasing its security. Now, it wasn't easy for Qatar to handle the entire country's security alone. Qatar had money but it had less population. Even in today's date, Qatar's total population is around 26 lakhs equivalent to one of India's city. Now, with so less population - however money you spend, if people are less then its difficult to maintain the security so what they did was - with contract it started maintaining its security from abroad. And in future, it signed Defense Cooperation Agreement with U.S. and Qatar invited US to make Air base. And when it invited, then US made Al Udeid Air base in Qatar which in future becomes the acomodation of more than 10,000 US troops. Qatar's surrounding countries didn't like these things but US had its entire partnership with Qatar. In fact, even today Qatar is US's top NON-NATO Ally. At that time, US didn't have so good relations with Saudi but when Qatar gave US its Air base, the US's loyalty won as well. Similarly, Qatar and US became very close Ally & Qatar wasn't solely dependent on US. It signed multiple security agreements with other countries made its Naval security strong. It tied up with many private companies and maintained its security. Now, if you look at Qatar's area then more than 35000 sq km of its border area is covered by Sea. And Qatar's north natural gas field is its lifeline. So, for Qatar its naval security has always been the priority, and then in future, such incidents came forward where - there were Nord Stream pipelines of Baltic Sea when Qatar saw attacks in those places then it invested more money in its naval security. It out-sourced the security, dealt for different warships. Many naval trainings there has been done by India itself.

2014

All these things were going on - but then comes year 2014 And Oman is Qatar's neighboring country Its Royal Oman Air Force's retired dquad leader Khamis Al Ajmi opens up a defense consultancy which was named as - Dahra Global Technologies & Consultancy services. The physical office was in Muscat, Oman & one of its branch has opened up in Doha, Qatar. Now, since it was a defense company so it was very big. It got lots of funding as well. This company had to provide defense service, give training for military equipments. logistics, providing maintenance services to armed forces. So, the owner of this company was the CEO as well & was himself retired from Royal Oman Air Force so, he had lot of knowledge about defense. So, after opening this company Khamis sends a proposal to the Major General of Qatar - Tariq Khalid Al that your Qatari Emiri Naval Forces - QENF's maintenance and training services should be given to them and Qatar accepts Khamis's proposal in the same year. So, this company starts to work together with the government of Qatar & the website of this company - now it has been changed - but the website earlier, it had mentioned the local business partner of Qatar's government agency including defense. So, when Qatar government gives the project to this company then it starts hiring rapidly between 2015-2016 all over the world. Now, since its a defense company, so normal citizen doesn't know much about ships. So, they were hiring the retired naval officers all over the world and in the same year, they recruited more than 75 officers of Indian origin. Among 79 Indian officers, 8 join this company at a senior level and this entire case is filed on these 8 officers.
Among all these people who were hired from India, at the top was - Commander Purnendu Tiwari who was hired as a managing director in this company. Similarly, 3 out of remaining 7 Navtej Singh Gill, Commander Sugunakar Pakala & Captain BK Verma they become naval directors in the company. And rest - Commander Amit Nagpal, Commander SK Gupta & Captain Saurabh Vasisht are hired at the executive role. Ragesh is hired as a sailor. So, these were total 8 people who were hired at a senior level in this company. After being hired, they work very efficiently and through their company they go to Qatar and do maintenance and security consultation. All of them had spent almost 4-6 years while doing all these things in Qatar.

2016

Now, after this comes year 2016 & Qatar plans to make its submarines even stronger. Now, Italy is famous for its Naval architecture in the whole world. In the entire Europe, Italy is the largest producer of Submarines, Naval ships, Naval frigate and there's a very big & famous ship building company in Italy itself. Fincantieri SPA Their discussion with this company starts. And in this deal, Dahra Global technology gives its inputs as well. Now, after all the things were done - this Italian company Fincantieri - signs MOU in 2016 with Qatar, which includes 4 small size war ships, 2 patrol vessels and 1 Amphibious vessel. In this deal Italy had to deliver these to Qatar. So, this deal wasn't much controversial - it was a very normal deal. Everyone knew about it. But the main controversial deal is signed in 2020. So, all these deals are worked upon & along with it - Dahra Global Technologies together along with Qatar, as usual keeps on working. And Indian officers plays a very big role in it. They work very efficiently. So, the Indian officers and the company that was working with Qatar made both the Qatar and Indian Government happy & regarding this.
In 2019 Commander Purnendu Tiwari - the managing director of this company India gives him Pravasi Bhartiya Samman award. This award is presented to them who, perform outstanding work out of India. And this was the first time, when India's retired army personnel got this award. Our president presented this award to him. The Indian Ambassador at Doha - Deepak Mittal - even visited the site of Dahara Global for the betterment of relation between Qatar and India & moving it forward. He even praised this company. And from the Indian embassy, this company got their certificate of Appreciation that they had even uploaded on their website earlier. But now it has been removed.
The entire area of Persian gulf there's only Iran which has stealth submarine means it can remain in water for a longer time without being detected and can make heavy attacks & through this submarine the whole are can be monitored. Qatar also wanted to keep a similar submarine with him in this area and due to this in 2020, Qatar does a secret deal with the Italian company Fincantieri SPA - one which it dealt with in 2016. All the things that I'm telling, hasn't been disclosed by Qatar or Indian Government. They haven't given any statement on this matter. But the local newspaper in the middle east, are publishing news regarding this back to back & they're publishing the report because on 17th of May 2021, there was a screenshot of a presentation in Italy which had been leaked. Which was published by naval news - which consisted that in Italian parliament a remote presentation of two secret submarines have been given and when this presentation was going on then it mentioned that these submarines has been made for a foreign country and this is the screenshot of this presentation. which was leaked & it was published by naval news in its report which they named as - Italy's secretive Submarine deal with Qatar new Intelligence. And from here things rose up high that Qatar is taking stealth submarine from Italy. All the news that I'm telling you, if you search about it then Fincantieri - the company's name that I said - along with it you can also get you can also get a name with 'CABI' you will watch it in news. Actually Fincantieri & CABI - work together. So, somewhere Fincantieri is used and in other places CABI is used. Qatar that was making a secret deal with the Italian company about this only the Dhara global technologies and its associate Indian Navy officers. That Qatar is doing a secret deal with an Italian company. in which a small variant of Italian 212 - Stealth submarine - is ordered. in Qatar through the company of Italy. Now, this deal that was going on was a very big deal for Qatar because - it had many reasons.
Firstly, if Qatar gets this stealth submarine then Israel's supremacy over Arab would have been decreased. That's why Qatar didn't even want that Israel should know anything about it because Israel will never let this deal happen.
Secondly, there was grace between Indian & Pakistan as well regarding this submarine. Both of them block each other, so they no one gets the submarine The one who will possess submarine will have an upper hand. Now Pakistan had good relations with Qatar - then Qatar's submarines have their benefits taken up by Pakistan. They give Pakistan to use it. After this, there's a fear that the stealth technology that Qatar will receive. This has high chances that - Pakistan can also have this technology and even if Qatar denies there's a possibility that Pakistan can even steal this technology from Qatar.

30th August, 2022

So, after this on 30th August 2022 - State Security Bureau - Qatar's intelligence agency So, they go to these 8 Navy officers & reach at night and say that they've to do urgent naval exercise and for that these officers have to go. Among them, one officer had to go to India but they go with them due to this call. And when these 8 Navy officers go along with Qatar officers, they are put in prison and not in normal prison they are locked in a separate prison. They're forbidden to meet each other. They couldn't talk with each other and neither the family nor the Indian embassy is informed anything about it. Nobody knows until a month that they're locked up in prison & after a month it comes to light in such a way that Pakistan's news agency breaks this news that India's 8 Navy officers have been locked up in prison for spying. Now, after this news breaks family tries to meet them but they're forbidden. After that the family informs Indian embassy & after so much tries.

1st October, 2022

On 1st October 2022 The Indian embassy at Doha - its officers Deepak Mittal and Deputy Head of Mission go to the Qatar officials and they get Consular access - which means people at Indian Embassy who are consulars, when they meet these 8 Navy officers - then its called Consular access. When the case about Khulbhushan Jadhav occured then you might've heard this word a lot. Consular Access Now after this meeting, only one good thing happens that family is allowed to talk to them once a week. But even after that - what charges are filed against them, why are they held in prison nobody is informed about it. Now, after 2 days,

3rd October 2022

On 3rd October 2022 - Dhara company's owner Khamis Al-Ajmi gets to know about them. He travels from Oman to Qatar & as soon as he reaches Qatar. They arrest him as well. After this, people of Indian embassy hold meetings multiple times with Qatar officials, with their government that they should be released but Qatar officials directly deny of their release and say that they've proof about the secret deal between Qatar and Italy - they told about it to Israel. And after that, they also say that all the things that they're saying all those have been intercepted by electronic communication. That all the Indian Navy officers were spying and sending details to Israel. Qatar officials also told that metamaterials are used to enhance the stealth capabilities of the submarines its confidential information has been shared with Israel by the Indian officials. All these things were going on the news but there were no comments from Israel's side. In fact, until today's date there isn't any statement from Israel on it. Now, all these things that were going in Qatar - not many people in India knew.

27th October, 2022

On 27th October 2022 people get to know about it when Commander Purnendu Tiwari's sister - Doctor Meetu Bhargava - tweets and tags all the big ministers and starts writing everything day by day on twitter. After her tweet, all the retired officers and serving officers support her and raise this issue & then this matter spreads in India as well. And people demand an action to be taken on it. In fact, on 7th of December, 2022 Congress's Manish Tiwari raised this issue even in Parliament.
And when lot of pressure is put, then its said that - India's vice president when there'll be inauguration of FIFA will take place, then they'll go in November and he'll directly talk about it with their officials he does go there but his words fail. Now, after this - in the first week of November Oman has the owner of Dhara company's owner released. And from here, lot of pressure develops on India that Oman has its citizen released but we aren't able to. Now, from here India was trying again & again but all its efforts kept failing. Then Christmas ends & New Year ends and year 2023 starts & on 15th March 2023 the last bail of application for the Indian officers is rejected.
And 10 days later to this, on 25th March 2023 the charges against these Navy officers are submitted. These charges are submitted but nobody is informed that what the charges are. In fact, not even their family which charges led them to be locked up in prison. 4 days after all these charges are submitted in the court, on 29th of March 2023 trials start in Qatar's court of first instance. As India has Lower court, High court, Supreme court similarly, even in Qatar they've Court of first instance like India's Lower court. After that comes, Appeal court - similar to India's High court. And at the highest position is the Court of Concession. Similar to India's Supreme court, Qatar has court of concession. So, this entire case is been heard in Court of First instance in Qatar, that is Lower court. When this case starts, then India even hires the law firm of Qatar named Office of Majid Al Hajri. Its office is in Doha itself - when this law firm was hired then all the media outlets were calling their office but this case had so much secrecy that - the next hearing related to this case even this detail wasn't shared with anyone by the law firm. All these hearing were done in such secret ways that - apart from prosecution defense lawyer and 2 witness nobody else was allowed to be in the court and even at the time of hearing even the defense attorney wasn't given the access of the documents of these Navy officers.
There was an Indian Journalist was also trying to make a report from different officials and getting to know more about it. As soon as Qatar gets to know about him - the journalist and his wife is right away sent to India. Now, after this on 3rd May 2023 - the second hearing was to be done but it was postponed to 18th June. Now, all these hearing that was going on - India even starts to feel that the law firm that they've hired is incapable, so India replaces the law firm 'Majid Al Hajri' with another law firm 'Ahmad Ali Al Hal' And now it is fighting for the case.
The day of the 2nd hearing, on the same day - Dahra Global technologies and consultancy services, their website is removed. This company isn't trackable. After some days it goes live again But all the certificates of Appreciation they got from India and that was written - Qatar local business partner - has been removed. The next day, 75 other Indian officers that were working in this Dhara company - news agency reaches them out and they get to know that everyone has been dismissed from the company. Their last working day was 31st of May 2023 & the company Dhara Global's assets that is buildings, contracts - all these have been transferred to a new company named Advanced Services & Maintenance. ASM & its website was www.advanced-sm.com this new company would be run by two french citizens. The hiring of Indians have been totally forbidden. So, all the employees are currently working are non-Indians. The main hiring done now for only Britishers, French and Omani nationals. None of the Indians are allowed to work in it. Now, after this when August month arrives in 2023 some positive things take place. Firstly, all the 8 officers who were separate were shifted to normal prison. This matter seems to be normal when heard. But solitary confinement is very painful - Secondly, the family members are allowed to meet them and also they allow them to talk weekly. Looking at all these things that, it felt like something positive will happen.

2023

Now, after this comes the date 1st October 2023. On this day, Indian ambassador meet with the 8 Navy officers personally. And they discuss about the hearing that was to be held on 3rd October 2023 but what happens after that - the details aren't out yet. But Directly on 26th October, 2023 all these 8 Navy officers are sentenced to death penalty in case of spying. And when they're sentenced to this death penalty it creates a roar in India. Back to back statements surface that - we're shocked but this was India's biggest defeat at the diplomatic level.
Oman's government saved its citizen. But until today's date we're trapped in it. Now if you look at their family members, then they reach for help everyday on twitter. They tag but for the time being, nothing has happened. Among them there're many navy officers whose health condition isn't that good. They've diabetes but even after that nothing is happening.
One thing is also being said that in this entire case - Qatar & Indian Government knows everything they know why are all these charges being applied but they aren't telling family and other people. In fact, recently spokesperson of Ministry of external affairs Arindam Bagchi said this in the official statement. That we know about these charges. Now the question is that - which options does India have? Now, 1st option is that it should be challenged in the Court of Qatar. This verdict has been given in lower court and it should be taken in higher court. Then in supreme court.
Secondly, if our Prime minister Modi ji talks at the personal level with Qatar's Emir then something can be done because on 18th of December, when they celebrate national day and Amir issues pardoning to lot of lot of prisoners. So, this can also be a possibility that pressure should be build at the diplomatic level. So, on 18th December they all cam be pardoned.
Thirdly, during 2015 when Qatar's Amir visited India then he signed a deal with India which was related to Prisoner & in the agreement it was signed that if anyone will be sentenced in Qatar then it can be completed in India as well. And same thing was for Qatar. Now if this agreement will be applied here or not depends on the pressure India makes rest its also said that if any 3rd country can be mediated, then also a solution can be found. Rest, final option is International Court of Justice, Permanent Court of Arbitration can be applied as well. But, ultimately all the things will depend on the relation between India & Qatar's relation.
Qatar's total population is around 26 lakh among which around 3 lakh are Qatari citizens rest more than 7 Lakh indian citizens reside there. So, Qatar's workforce also depends on Indians as well. Mainy, the relations of the country depend on trade. If the trade is good, then relations of the country is also good. If we talk about trade then, India mainly imports LNG, LPG, Petro-chemical from Qatar. Qatar exports around $16.81 billion to India. On the other hand India only exports $1.97 billion to Qatar. And that too mainly cereals, fruits, steel articles. So, the dependency of trade on Qatar is high for India India is Qatar's 4th largest exporter. And when the Ukraine vs Russia war had started the dependency of India on Qatar has increased even more. Along with it India-Qatar relations has been good. Military exercises are done together by India & Qatar. There's a joint navy exercise of India & Qatar named Zair-Al-Bahr. India and Qatar's coast guard regularly visit each other. Qatar's QENF delegations participates in two maritime exercises in the past 2 years. Along with it, our PM has visited Qatar lot of times. Qatar's Amir has visited India multiple times. Recently, both the countries has even decided that in 2023 it'll be 50 years to India and Qatar's relationship. So, it'll be celebrated. In fact, in 2008 Qatar had invested 5 billion dollars in India. Along with it, Qatar gives India a discount on Gas. On the other hand, India isn't left behind. In 2017, when Saudi and its friendly countries had blocked Qatar from all 4 sides, things couldn't be imported or exported then India supported it fully. India sent needs through Airlift to Qatar. Now, India is area wise, population wise, navy wise, military wise larger than Qatar. In fact, India has 10 times more expenditure on our military in comparison to Qatar. Workforce of India is huge, but Qatar - even after being a small country due to it geo-political importance, India cannot pressurize Qatar in the way the way it had done with Canada. That's why even if you look in the past - then time to time Qatar forces its statement.
When the case of Nupur Sharma occurred, then Qatar was the first country who demanded for public apology. In fact, Qatar was so enraged that our vice president - Venkaiah Naidu - lunch was fixed with him in Qatar but due to this case Qatar's Amir made an excuse and cancelled this lunch. And had expressed its anger. In future, Nupur Sharma had to be expelled from the party, on the other hand if we talk about India, it has also expressed its anger when Zakir Naik arrived at FIFA but Qatar told that - he has visited in personal capacity then Qatar cannot do anything. On the other hand, Qatar's new outlet Al Jazeera which is also Qatar's mouth piece. Even that has been critical against India from time to time but until now, if we see then India has kept ignoring these things but this time the matter isn't normal. Its a matter of 8 retired Navy officers so, its very important what India will do in this case. The relation has been very mixed between Qatar-India so, its very difficult to predict. If India makes the correct pressure then there're lot of possibilities.

27th December 2023

On 27^th December 2023, first big breakthrough comes Court commutes the death sentence of 8 Indian veterans to life in prison. The death sentence was commuted to life in prison 4 Jan, 2024 at the starting of this year…. External affairs ministry told there was a 60 day window in which they could appeal in the highest court of Qatar against this whole case On 12^th February, our 8 veterans who were given death sentence and were commuted, were released in Doha. 7 of them have now returned to India.

So how did this huge transition from death sentence to returning home happen?

There are three clear reasons. There are more reasons behind this. There is more geopolitics behind this. Some things will be told to us. Some will be secret.
First of all, it is obvious. Prime Minister Modi’s personal relationship with the Emir of Qata and the behind the scenes diplomacy played out with Ajit Doval and Jai Shankar. Now, this death sentence, this commute to life in December, this came only after a few days after Modi met Qatar’s Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani They met at COP28 in Dubai It is not official if they talked about it but cannot be a coincidence.
Secondly, India signed a massive deal a week ago. $78 billion of LNG imports. It’s a 20-year contract. $78 billion contract. We have saved $6 billion from the previous prices. But when you sign such a big deal, your negotiating power increases America says that they will manufacture Boeing in India. The reason for that is that the most orders of Boeing aircrafts are from India So, when you have this much purchasing power, then your negotiating power also increases Remember, India is the world’s third biggest energy consumer. And natural gas is also very important for us. If we go from fossil fuel to zero carbon emission, then natural gas is called transition power mode. And we will increase our dependency on natural gas. 2-3 things are clear from this episode. We give a lot of footage about UK, USA, Canada As far as NRIs are concerned, as far as money is concerned. But we forget that if estimated 1.5 crore non-Indian residents are living abroad, more than 60% of them are living in Gulf countries. Think about it… 90 lakhs crore people live in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain. So, our massive NRI population is in these areas And we have to keep our relations with these areas very well. So that our citizens are safe there. So that no one tries to trap them. Our energy requirements should be safe. No one should try to steal it.

Conclusion

You know how geopolitics is changing. All said and done, it is a massive victory. We don’t know if all the details will be known or not. What was the backdoor diplomacy? What did Ajit Doval say? What assurances did Narendra Modi give? What did Jai Shankar Ji pull? But our veterans are back at home. 7 out of 8 I really hope that the 8^th one comes back soon So that we can say that we don’t leave anyone behind and put all our strength to get our brave men back to the shore.