The government is providing all possible assistance to Nimisha Priya, a Kerala nurse facing a death sentence in Yemen, the Ministry of External Affairs said Thursday, confirming that the death sentence, originally scheduled for July 16, 2025, has been postponed.
“The government has appointed a lawyer to assist Nimisha Priya’s family. Regular consular visits have been arranged. The Ministry of External Affairs is in constant touch with local authorities in Yemen and Nimisha Priya’s family members,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at his weekly press briefing.
Nimisha Priya, a nurse from Kerala, was sentenced to death in Yemen for the murder of a Yemeni national, Talal Abdo Mehdi. Her family is working towards securing her release through a “blood money” settlement, a practice permitted under Yemeni law.
She has been on death row in Yemen’s Central Prison since 2018, after being convicted for the 2017 murder of a Yemeni citizen.
Priya had allegedly injected her employer with a fatal overdose of sedatives. Her family maintains she was acting in self-defence and that her business partner was abusive and kept her passport from her after the country’s civil war broke out.