Yemeni President Rashad al-Alimi has approved the death penalty for Indian woman Nimisha Priya, who has been serving a prison sentence since 2017 for killing a Yemeni national. According to media reports, the execution could be carried out within a month.
Reacting to the matter, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Monday said that India is aware of Nimisha Priya’s execution in Yemen.
MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement, “We are aware that Priya’s family is considering appropriate decisions. The government is offering all possible assistance in this matter.”
The decision of the Yemeni President has come as a shock to the family, which has been trying to save 36-year-old Nimisha from the death penalty. Her mother Prema Kumari, 57, came to the Yemeni capital Sanaa earlier this year and has been living there since then, reportedly to secure a reprieve from the death penalty and arrange for blood money with the victim’s family.
Nimisha Priya case
Nimisha Priya was found guilty of murdering a Yemeni national, Talal Abdo Mahdi, in 2017. A year later, she was sentenced to death by a trial court in Yemen. Since then, her family has been struggling for her release. They approached Yemen’s Supreme Court against the trial court’s verdict, but their offer to be released in 2023 was rejected. Now, the country’s president has also rejected Priya’s offer, so her release is dependent on securing forgiveness from the victim’s family and their tribal leaders.
Her mother Prema Kumari had been trying to raise money for blood donation with the victim’s family, but the talks with the victim’s family were abruptly halted in September when Abdullah Ameer, a lawyer appointed by the Government of India’s office, sought a pre-negotiation cost of $20,000 (around Rs 16.6 lakh), according to a report by Manorama Online.
The Ministry of External Affairs had given Ameer $19,871 in July, but he demanded a total sum of $40,000 in two installments before continuing the talks.
The Spare Nimisha Priya Worldwide Activity Chamber managed to raise the first part of Ameer’s expenses through crowdfunding. However, they later reportedly faced challenges in guaranteeing that donors were able to keep track of how the money was being used.
About Nimisha Priya
Nimisha Priya, a native of Palakkad, is a trained nurse who has worked in private clinics in Yemen for several years. In 2014, her husband and minor daughter returned to India for financial reasons. The same year, war broke out in Yemen and they did not return, as the country stopped issuing unused visas. In 2015, Priya sought Mahdi’s return to open his clinic in Sana’a, as according to Yemen’s law, citizens are allowed to open clinics and commerce firms. According to her motion petition in the Yemeni Incomparable Court, in 2015, Mahdi accompanied Priya to Kerala when she came for a month. During the trip, he stole her wedding photo, which he later used to claim that she was married to him. On their return, when Priya started the clinic, Mahdi started usurping all the income. He also controlled the ownership records of the clinic. When Nimisha Priya confronted him about the embezzlement, he started threatening her. He also started siphoning off money from her monthly income by claiming Priya was his wife and altered their photographs in a way to make them look married. In her complaint, Priya alleged that the harassment soon turned into physical abuse and Mahdi also confiscated her passport.
According to her complaint, Priya approached the police in Sana’a regarding the matter, but instead of taking action against Mahdi, the police arrested him and put him in jail for six days.
In July 2017, Priya approached the superintendent of a jail near her clinic where Mahdi was already imprisoned under other charges. The superintendent suggested that she should try to calm him down and then persuade him to grant her visa. However, the sedation did not work on Mahdi, who was a drug addict. He tried once again to sedate her, using a more powerful narcotic to regain his international identity, but she died within minutes from an overdose of the sedative.