Malayali Nurse Nimisha Priya's Execution Put On Hold In Yemen

Thiruvananthapuram: Wednesday’s execution of Nimisha Priya, a nurse from Kerala sentenced to death in Yemen, has been put on hold following a Yemeni government order issued on Tuesday.

Samuel Jerome Baskaran, who has been negotiating on behalf of the family, stated that the victim's family had not yet agreed to a pardon or to accept blood money. The intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kerala Governor Rajendra Arlekar, Chandy Oommen MLA, Yemeni authorities made it possible, he said.

Nimisha's mother Premakumari and her husband Tomy expressed relief over the suspension of the execution and thanked everyone who intervened to save her life. Previously, Yemeni authorities had issued an order for Nimisha's execution on July 16, in connection with the murder of Talal Mahdi.

The grand mufti of India, Kanthapuram A.P. Aboobacker Musaliyar, played a crucial role in getting the execution suspended. "We spoke to Muslim scholars in Yemen. We are confident that the people of Yemen would listen to their words," said Kanthapuram, who is also the All India Jamiyyathul Ulama general secretary, while addressing mediapersons.

Nimisha, a native of Palakkad district, got stuck in Yemen following a travel ban due to the civil war in 2016. While her husband and daughter had returned to India earlier in 2014, she could not join them at that time due to her job requirements. In the meantime, with the assistance of Yemeni citizen Talal Mahdi, Nimisha set up a clinic in 2015.

Subsequently, serious differences surfaced between Nimisha and Mahdi and the nurse accused him of torturing and abusing her. With the Yemeni national taking away her passport, she got stranded in Yemen.

In her statement made earlier, Nimisha had alleged that Mahdi had posed himself as her husband before the local authorities, following which she could not get any assistance from them.

On July 25, 2017, she injected Mahdi with sedatives to take her passport back and flee from that place. The Yemeni collapsed soon after she administered the sedative. Nimisha, along with another person's help, disposed of his body.

The crime surfaced four days later. The Yemeni police took both Nimisha and her accomplice into custody. While Nimisha was sentenced to death, the other person was given life imprisonment.

In New Delhi, government sources said: “The Indian government, which has since the beginning of the case been rendering all possible assistance in the matter, has made concerted efforts in recent days to seek more time for the family of Ms Nimisha Priya to reach a mutually agreeable solution with the other party. Despite the sensitivities involved, Indian officials have been in regular touch with the local jail authorities and the prosecutor’s office, leading to securing this postponement.”

According to a BBC report, Nimisha’s relatives and supporters said they had raised $1m (nearly `9 crore) and offered it to Mahdi's family. "We are still trying to save her. But ultimately the family has to agree for pardon," Babu John, a member of the Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council, was quoted as telling the BBC last week.

The BBC report had said that Mahdi's family had made clear that they would settle for nothing less than her being put to death. "Our stance on the attempts at reconciliation is clear; we insist on implementing God's Law in Qisas [retaliation in kind], nothing else," his brother, Abdelfattah Mahdi, was quoted as telling the BBC Arabic on Monday, before the execution was postponed.

According to reports, Nimisha’s mother has been visiting Yemen’s capital Sana'a to secure a waiver of the death penalty and negotiate the blood money with the victim's family.