Kerala nurse, on death row in Yemen, set to be executed on July 16

Nimisha Priya, an Indian nurse who is on death row after being convicted for the murder of a Yemeni national, will be executed on July 16.

Hailing from Kollengode town in Kerala’s Palakkad, Priya’s capital punishment was approved by the Yemeni President on December 30 last year.

Sources said the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) was closely following the matter. “We have been in regular touch with the local authorities and her family members and rendered all possible assistance,” the sources said quoting the MEA.

Married with a daughter, Priya worked as a nurse in the UAE before moving to Yemen in 2011 where she came in contact with Yemeni national Talal Abdo Mahdi.

Priya’s husband and minor daughter had to return to India in 2014 due to financial woes. The same year, Yemen was engulfed in civil war and the duo could not return as the country stopped issuing new visas. As Yemen’s law bars foreigners from starting their own businesses unless they have local partners, Mahdi is said to have helped Priya set up a clinic in capital Sanaa.

In 2017, Priya was found guilty of murdering Mahdi even as she called it an “act of self-defence”. She alleged that Mahdi had been harassing her for money and had even seized her passport. She also alleged that he forged her documents to project himself as her husband while subjecting her to physical and emotional abuse.

In 2018, Priya was sentenced to death by a trial court. Her family has since been fighting for her release. They approached the Yemini Supreme Court against the trial court’s order, but their appeal was turned down in 2023. As the Yemeni President also rejected her appeal, her release now depends on securing the forgiveness of Mahdi’s family and their tribal leaders.

The Yemeni media stated that “Priya killed Mahdi with the help of another person and chopped his body into pieces before dumping it into a water tank in her house”. She was arrested while attempting to flee Yemen.

Priya’s family and advocacy groups have launched campaigns to save her while her mother, Prema Kumari, is said to be in Sanaa to negotiate with Mahdi’s family to secure forgiveness through “blood money”. As per the Yemen law, a death penalty can be nullified only if the victim’s family agrees to pardon the culprit, often in exchange for blood money.

However, the negotiations hit a roadblock in September last year as Abdullah Ameer, the Indian Embassy-appointed lawyer, raised a pre-negotiation fee of Rs 17.12 lakh ($20,000), which he later doubled to Rs 34 lakh. A portion of the amount, raised by the ‘Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council’ through crowdfunding, was used to pay the first instalment of Rs 17.12 lakh, but a disagreement over the fund transparency complicated the matter.

India