Yemeni President Rashad al-Alimi has approved the death sentence for Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya, convicted of murder in Yemen. The execution is scheduled to take place within a month.
Nimisha Priya, a native of Palakkad, was sentenced to death in 2018 for the murder of Yemeni national Talal Abdo Mehdi. She was apprehended while attempting to flee Yemen.
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In August 2018, a trial court found Priya guilty of murdering Mehdi by injecting him with sedatives. Mehdi’s dismembered body was later discovered in a water tank. A Yemeni nurse, who was found guilty of assisting Priya, was sentenced to life imprisonment.
On March 7, 2022, an appeal court upheld Priya’s death sentence but left room for clemency, allowing Mehdi’s family to pardon her under Islamic law. Such pardons typically require the payment of “blood money,” a compensation paid to the victim’s family.
Efforts to secure a pardon have faced challenges. Priya’s mother, Premakumari, has been residing in Sana’a, Yemen’s capital, for five months, working to negotiate forgiveness and raise the required blood money.
She has been supported by Samuel Jerome, an NRI social worker associated with the Save Nimisha Priya Action Council.
Negotiations stalled in September when Abdullah Ameer, a lawyer appointed by the Indian Embassy, demanded a $20,000 (approximately Rs 16.7 lakh) pre-negotiation fee, halting discussions.
Although the Ministry of External Affairs provided $19,871 in July, Ameer insisted on a total of $40,000, payable in two installments, before continuing the talks.
The Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council managed to raise the first installment through crowdfunding but later faced difficulties in providing transparency to donors regarding fund usage.
With time running out, Priya’s fate remains uncertain as efforts to secure clemency continue amidst financial and procedural hurdles.
