Local authorities in Yemen are learnt to have postponed the execution of Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya, which was scheduled for July 16.
Sources said that the Indian government, which has since the beginning of the case been rendering all possible assistance in the matter, made concerted efforts in recent days to seek more time for the family to reach a mutually agreeable solution with the other party. The nurse’s family and supporters have been trying to negotiate a “blood money” deal with the family of the murder victim, Talal Abdo Mehdi, so that Priya could be pardoned under Sharia law.
Despite the “sensitivities” involved, sources said that Indian officials have been in regular touch with the local jail authorities and the prosecutor’s office in Yemen, which helped secure this postponement.
The development comes a day after the Centre informed the Supreme Court that it had done all it could to save Priya. “There’s nothing much the government can do… looking at the sensitivity of Yemen… It’s not diplomatically recognised… There’s a point till which the 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 the situation by going public, we are trying at a private level,” Attorney-General R Venkataramani, appearing for the Centre, had said.
Bhaskaran, a negotiator who had been leading the discussions with the Yemeni authorities, said, “I thank the Yemen government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the External Affairs Ministry.”
Sources familiar with the developments had also told The Indian Express that discussions were underway at “various levels” in Yemen to save her life. “Community leaders, two Yemeni citizens associated with the Indian mission, and a negotiator, Samuel Jerome Bhaskaran, have been involved in the discussions,” a source had told The Indian Express.
Nimisha Priya’s mother, Prema Kumari, who has been camping in Yemen since last year, told The Indian Express on Monday, “I met my daughter in jail last month. She is suffering in silence.”
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From Kerala, prominent Muslim leader and general secretary of the All India Sunni Jamiyyathul Ulama, Kanthapuram A P Aboobacker Musliyar, has also made interventions to try and secure Nimisha’s release. Musaliyar had urged a prominent Sufi scholar in Yemen to hold discussions with Talal’s family and local leadership to see that the family pardons the woman.
The case
Priya, who hails from Palakkad, Kerala, was found guilty of murdering Talal Abdo Mahdi in 2017. She was arrested while trying to flee Yemen and sentenced to death in 2018.
After becoming a qualified nurse, Priya moved to Yemen in 2008. In 2011, she married Tomy Thomas in Kerala. Both wanted to start their own clinic, but under Yemeni law, this required them to partner with a local.
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The couple approached Talal Abdo Mehdi, a regular at the clinic where Priya worked as a nurse, for help. Once the clinic started, however, Mahdi allegedly refused to share his income with her. He also allegedly forged documents to show her as his wife, while her husband was in Kerala. According to Priya’s family, what followed was a cycle of abuse, with Priya unable to leave because Mahdi had taken all her travel documents and passport.
One day, Priya, with the help of fellow nurse Hannan, allegedly tried to sedate Mahdi to get her papers back. But an overdose led to his death. Panicking, the duo decided to chop Mahdi’s body up and dump it in a water tank. Both were eventually arrested.
The death sentence was awarded to her by a trial court in Yemen and upheld by the country’s Supreme Court. Last year, Yemen’s President Rashad al-Alimi approved the death sentence for the 38-year-old woman. The order had been with the prosecutor since January this year.
