‘Spying’ for Israel: Eight former Indian Navy officials face death in Qatar

DOHA: Qatar has shut down Dahra Global, a company involved in submarine espionage.

As many as 75 Indian nationals, the majority of whom are ex-Indian Navy personnel, have been told that their last day of work at Dahra will be 31 May, foreign media reported.

A majority of these Indian nationals will have to come back to India because of employment terms and conditions and rules related to work visa that are applicable in Qatar.

Dahra Global has been in the eye of the storm since August last year after eight ex-Indian Navy personnel, working with the said company in senior positions, were detained by Qatar’s intelligence agencies.

These eight Indian nationals, too, have been sacked by Dahra.

The arrested former Indian Navy officials are now facing a potential death sentence as they have been charged with spying for Israel with the Qatari authorities said to be in possession of electronic evidence in this regard.

The next hearing in the case is on 3 May during which it is expected that the charges under which they have been held will be revealed.

The men were employed for a super-secret project to build Italian technology-based midget submarines with stealth characteristics.

Sources aware of the developments said a new company called the “Advanced Services and Maintenance (ASM)”, whose website is https://www.advanced-sm.com/home, is in the process of taking over all the assets owned by Dahra, including office buildings, contracts and non-Indian employees.