Nimisha Priya, a nurse from Palakkad district of Kerala, is to be hanged on July 16 in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen. She was convicted of killing a Yemeni citizen in 2017. The case has been embroiled in diplomatic and legal complexities since the beginning. Despite the continuous efforts of the Indian government, no concrete success has been achieved so far.
Nimisha has almost run out of legal options. In 2020, a lower court in Yemen sentenced her to death, which was also upheld by the Supreme Judicial Council of Yemen in November 2023. Now her last hope of getting pardon is left in the form of “Diya” (shedding of blood), but the time for that too is very limited.
Who Is Nimisha Priya?
Nimisha Priya is a 37-year-old Indian nurse, whose roots are connected to Palakkad district of Kerala. She went to Yemen with her husband and daughter in 2008 to help her parents financially. In 2014, her husband and daughter returned to India, but Nimisha stayed there to take care of the family’s financial responsibilities. After working in several hospitals, she decided to open a private clinic in 2014. According to Yemen’s rules, foreign nationals need a local partner to start a business. Under this condition, she made a Yemeni citizen named Talal Abdo Mahdi a partner in her clinic.
What Is The Matter?
Nimisha is accused of murdering her business partner Talal Abdo Mahdi. For this crime, she is imprisoned in Sana’s jail and is to be hanged on 16 July 2025 under Yemeni law. In 2016, both of them opened a clinic together. After some time, Nimisha alleged that Talal prepared a fake marriage certificate and declared himself her husband, and started mentally and sexually harassing her. He also confiscated her passport, leaving her in a hostage-like situation in Yemen.
Planning to return to India in 2017, Nimisha gave Talal sedatives to make him unconscious so that she could get her passport back. But he died of an overdose of the drug. After this, with the help of a local woman, Hanan, the body was cut into pieces and hidden in a water tank. He was convicted in 2018 and in 2020 the court sentenced him to death. This sentence was also approved by Yemen’s Supreme Judicial Body and President Rashad al-Alimi in November 2023. Yemen’s law allows forgiveness through ‘Diya’ i.e. blood-acknowledgement, but efforts to reach a settlement with the deceased’s family failed in September 2024.
Role Of The Indian Government
The Indian government is constantly trying to stop Nimisha’s hanging in some way. According to a government official, the government has been monitoring the case from the beginning and is in touch with Yemeni officials and Nimisha’s family. But the biggest challenge is that the area is under the control of Houthi rebels, with whom India does not have formal diplomatic relations, which is creating a lot of obstacles in the talks.
Other options were also explored to postpone the hanging. Nimisha’s mother Premkumari also traveled to Yemen in 2024 to try to get her daughter released. Indian officials also tried to reach a compromise through ‘Diya’, but the complexities of negotiations at the local level came in the way and this effort also stopped.
At present, Nimisha is dependent on the last hope in Sana’s jail. Human rights organizations and common citizens are also appealing to the Indian government and international organizations to intervene in this matter. Now Nimisha’s life depends on whether the victim’s family accepts ‘Diya’ or not, because this is the only legitimate way to avoid the death penalty in Yemeni law.
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