Who is Nimisha Priya – the Indian nurse sentenced to death in Yemen

Days after Indian nationals were sentenced to death in Qatar, Indian nurse Nimisha Priya is now facing capital punishment in Yemen.  

Recently, Yemen’s Supreme Court rejected the appeal against the death sentence of Indian nurse Nimisha Priya, who has been serving a prison sentence since 2017 for the murder of a Yemeni national.

Indian Media reported the country’s government has informed the Delhi high court about the situation and told that the final decision now lies with the President of Yemen.

The Delhi High Court was hearing a writ petition filed by the mother of Nimisha Priya seeking permission to travel to Yemen to negotiate with the victim’s family by paying blood money.

Blood money refers to the compensation paid by an offender or his kin to the victim’s family.

The high court asked the Centre to decide within a week on a request to travel to Yemen from the mother.

Who is Nimisha Priya?

According to Indian media, nurse Nimisha Priya has been convicted of murdering Talal Abdo Mahdi, who died in July 2017 after she injected him with sedatives in order “to get her passport from his possession”.

The nurse belongs from Palakkad district in Indian state of Kerala. After completing a nursing training programme, she went to Yemen in 2011 and worked in a few private hospitals.

She came in contact with Talal Abdo Mahdi in 2014, who promised to help her in starting her clinic, Indian media reported.

A partnership was required since according to Yemeni law, partnering with a local is mandatory for starting any business.

However, the partnership ended because of differences between the two people.  She went ahead and started her clinic with him in 2015, but according to local outlets, Mahdi started threatening Priya.

Read More: Qatar court hands down death penalty verdict for eight Indians

Mahdi even took away her passport to ensure she doesn’t leave Yemen. The nurse filed a police complaint against the now deceased due to which he was arrested in 2016. But after his release, he continued giving troubles to Priya.

It was stated that Nimisha Priya injected Talal Abdo Mahdi with sedatives so that she could take her passport from him while he was unconscious. However, he died of an overdose.

Priya and her colleague Hanan, a Yemini national, reportedly chopped Mahadi’s body before disposing of it in a water tank. Priya was awarded capital punishment in 2018. Hanan was sentenced to life imprisonment.

What her family is doing?

Priya’s mother moved the Delhi high court earlier this year, seeking permission to travel to Yemen in spite of a travel ban for Indian nationals and negotiate the “blood money” to save her daughter.

On Thursday, the Centre’s lawyer said according to a notification issued recently, the travel ban may be relaxed and Indian nationals may be allowed to travel to Yemen for specific reasons and durations.

The petitioner had told the court earlier that the only way to save her daughter from the gallows was to negotiate with the deceased’s family by paying blood money.

The “Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council” approached the high court last year, seeking a direction to the Centre to “facilitate diplomatic interventions as well as negotiations with the family of the victim on behalf of Nimisha Priya to save her life.

The high court had earlier refused to direct the Centre to negotiate the payment of blood money to save the woman, but asked it to pursue the legal remedies against the conviction in Yemen.