The Centre on Monday told the Supreme Court that there is nothing much it can do in the Nimisha Priya death case.
During a hearing in the Supreme Court, AG Venkataramani, the counsel representing the government told the top court: “There’s nothing much government can do…looking at sensitivity of Yemen…it’s not diplomatically recognized.”
He noted that Yemen, where Priya is on death row with her execution date nearing, is not like any other part of the world.
“There’s a point till which government of India can go. We have reached that. Yemen is not like any other part of the world. We didn’t want to complicate situation by going public, we are trying at private level,” the counsel told the top court.
When the petitioner urged the government to negotiate with the victim’s family under the “blood money” under Yemen’s Sharia Law, the Centre stated that this was a private negotiation and it was making efforts privately with some influential people in the country.
The development comes after the apex court last week issued a notice to the Attorney General of India, seeking the Government of India’s response to the petition filed by 37-year-old Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya, who is facing death sentence for murder in Yemen and scheduled to be executed on July 16.
A native of Palakkad in Kerala, Priya was convicted of murdering Yemeni citizen Talal Abido Mehdi and handed out death sentence by a local court in Yemen in June 2018.
The death sentence issued by the trial court was upheld by Yemen’s Supreme Judicial Council in November 2023.
However, the ruling allowed for the possibility of clemency through the payment of “diya”—a form of blood money—to the victim’s family.
Priya worked as a nurse for several years in Yemen. With Talal’s support, she ran a clinic in Yemen. Reportedly, she faced mental, physical, and financial abuse, which she could not tolerate for long, and sedated him which ultimately led to his death.