Nimisha Priya sentenced to death in Yemen
Talal Abdo Mahdi's family, of Yemeni national origin, who were killed in 2017, are still resolute that Indian nurse Nimisha Priya has to be put to death for her offense. In an interview with BBC Arabic prior to the most recent news, Mahdi's brother, Abdelfattah Mahdi, told, "Our attitude towards the reconciliation attempts is firm; we demand executing God's Law in Qisas [retaliation in kind], nothing less."
He also pointed out the lengthy ordeal his family had to face, stating, "Not only from the senseless crime but also the lengthy, grueling court procedure in an awful and heinous but evident crime case."
Nimisha Priya, a woman from Kollengode in Kerala's Palakkad district, was found guilty of murder by a Yemeni court in 2020 and sentenced to death. Her execution had been scheduled for July 16 but was suddenly deferred by a day.
As per papers accessed by Hindustan Times, a Kerala Sunni cleric and her family, a July 14 order from the Yemeni government in Arabic confirmed that the execution was postponed indefinitely.
The Grand Mufti of India, Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musaliyar, confirmed this and informed that he had spoken to senior Yemeni scholars on behalf of Nimisha's family.
Nimisha came to Yemen at 19 in 2008 with dreams of establishing a nursing career. She later opened a clinic, according to reports, in association with Mahdi. She was convicted of murdering Mahdi in 2020 by administering sedatives on him, reportedly to get back her passport, which she claimed he was illegally withholding.
Nimisha asserted that she sedated Mahdi after both physically and financially mistreating her, but the overdose of the sedative killed him.
According to NDTV, the evening before Nimisha was scheduled for execution brought a surprise turnaround. For the first time since the trial started, Mahdi's brother consented to talk.
Subhash Chandran, a member of the counsel working on Nimisha's case and a lawyer, stated, "We spoke all through the night. Till late in the morning, the execution was postponed. We have got what we sought, some time to convince the family now."
