Centre tells Supreme Court Nimisha Priya's execution in Yemen has been stayed: 'Want her to come home safely'

The Centre on Friday informed the Supreme Court that the execution of Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya, who is on death row for murder in Yemen was deferred.

During a brief hearing, Attorney General R. Venkataramani, appearing for the Centre, told a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta that efforts are on in the matter and want Nimisha Priya to come back to India safely.

At this, the bench said, “They (government) are taking good care of whatever is possible.”

The counsel appearing for the petitioner said they have to first get pardon and then the issue of blood money would come.

The top court also granted permission to the petitioner organisation to approach the Centre. During the hearing, the counsel for the Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council also requested permission to travel to Yemen to initiate negotiations with the family of the murder victim.

The bench posted the matter for further hearing on August 14.

The top court was hearing a plea seeking a direction to the Centre to use diplomatic channels to save Priya, 38, facing execution in Yemen. The execution was earlier scheduled for July 16.

Priya, a nurse from Palakkad district of Kerala, was convicted of murdering her Yemeni business partner in 2017. She was sentenced to death in 2020, and her final appeal was rejected in 2023.

The story of Nimisha, who went to Yemen with dreams of providing for her family, has become an agonising saga for her loved ones. Convicted of murdering her Yemeni employer, a crime she claims happened in desperate self-defence, Nimisha has been sentenced to death in a foreign land where legal norms and diplomatic levers are often unpredictable.

India