The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) confirmed on Tuesday that it is providing full support to Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya after Yemen’s President approved her death sentence.
Case Overview
Nimisha Priya, a 36-year-old nurse from Kollengode in Kerala, moved to Yemen in 2008 to help her family. After working in various hospitals, she decided to open her own clinic. In 2014, she partnered with Talal Abdo Mahdi to comply with Yemeni law, which requires foreigners to team up with locals to start businesses.
However, their partnership quickly ran into trouble. In 2016, Nimisha filed a police complaint against Mahdi, leading to his arrest. Despite being released, Mahdi continued to threaten her.
In 2017, tensions between Nimisha and Mahdi escalated when she opposed his alleged attempts to embezzle funds from their clinic. According to her family, Nimisha injected Mahdi with sedatives to retrieve her passport, but he died from an overdose. She was arrested while trying to flee Yemen and was convicted of murder in 2018.
In 2020, a trial court in Sanaa sentenced her to death. Yemen’s Supreme Judicial Council upheld the sentence in November 2023, but left the possibility open for blood money (compensation) to be negotiated with Mahdi’s family. An appeal against the sentence was rejected.
Why the Death Sentence?
Yemen’s legal system imposes the death penalty for various crimes, including murder, terrorism, and drug trafficking. Nimisha was convicted of murder.
Efforts to Secure Nimisha’s Release
Nimisha’s mother, Prema Kumari, sold her property to fund her daughter’s legal battle. Lawyer Subhash Chandran is part of a team, including politicians, activists, and expatriates, working to secure Nimisha’s release.
Earlier this year, Prema Kumari traveled to Yemen to negotiate the payment of blood money to Mahdi’s family. She was supported by the Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council, a group of NRI social workers. However, the negotiations hit a roadblock in September when Abdullah Ameer, the lawyer appointed by the Indian Embassy, demanded an additional $20,000 in fees. The MEA had already provided $19,871, but Ameer insisted on a total fee of $40,000.
The Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council managed to raise part of the fee through crowdfunding but faced challenges in ensuring transparency in fund usage.