Yemeni Authorities Postpone Kerala Nurse Nimisha Priya's Execution
The Wire Staff
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New Delhi: Yemeni authorities have postponed the execution of Indian national Nimisha Priya, originally scheduled for tomorrow, July 16, official sources have said.
Nimisha Priya, a nurse originally from Palakkad district in Kerala, faces execution for the murder of Talal Abdo Mahdi, her Yemeni business partner. In Yemen, it is mandatory for a foreign medical practitioner to team up with a citizen in order to open a clinic. Nimisha Priya has alleged torture, financial exploitation and threats in Mahdi's hands, along with the fact that he forged documents to claim marriage with her.
In jail in the Yemeni capital of Sana'a, Nimisha Priya was sentenced to death in 2020, and her final appeal was rejected in 2023.
"GoI, 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. Nimishapriya to reach a mutually agreeable solution with the other party," sources said.
The sources said that Indian officials secured the postponement "despite the sensitivities involved" and that they have been in regular touch with local jail authorities and the prosecutor’s office.
India does not recognise the Houthi regime that controls much of civil war-torn Yemen’s northwest, including Sana'a.
Sunni Muslim leader Kanthapuram A.P. Aboobacker Musliyar, PTI reported, spoke to religious authorities in Yemen as part of last-minute efforts.
A meeting between representatives of Musliyar, of Sufi leader Sheikh Habib Umar bin Hafiz, and the family of Talal Abdo Mahdi — the Yemeni national allegedly killed by nurse Nimisha Priya in 2017 — was likely held at Dhamar today, a PTI report said.
A day ago, the Supreme Court head a plea to stall the death sentence for Nimisha Priya.
Attorney General for India R. Venkataramani had told the court that the Indian government was making every possible effort to save Nimisha Priya's life, but said that blood money is a private negotiation and not a diplomatic one in Yemen, to illustrate the government's limitations.
Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, meanwhile, has backed efforts to secure Nimisha Priya's release and wrote to prime minister Narendra Modi a day ago.
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