Rashad al-Alimi, the President of Yemen has authorised the death sentence awarded to Indian nurse Nimisha Priya in a 2017 murder case. Nimisha Priya is currently lodged in the Central Jail in the Yemeni national capital Sanaa for murdering a Yemeni citizen. The Indian nurse convicted of murder will be executed within a month unless her family manages to obtain a pardon.
Responding to this, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said that they are aware of the sentencing and are exploring relevant options. “We are aware of the sentencing of Nimisha Priya in Yemen. We understand that the family of Nimisha Priya is exploring relevant options. The government is extending all possible help in the matter,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.
Nimisha Priya’s arrest and dispute over payment of pre-negotiation fees
Nimisha Priya, a native of Kerala’s Palakkad district, was arrested in July 2017 for allegedly murdering Yemeni national Talal Abdo Mahdi. Three years later, a trial court in Sana’a sentenced her to death in 2020, and her appeal was rejected by Yemen’s Supreme Judicial Council in November 2023.
However, the possibility of paying blood money to the deceased person’s family remained open. Her freedom was dependent on convincing the victim’s family, and their tribe leader to forgive her. Her death sentence could have been overturned if the victim’s family had forgiven her and taken the blood money instead.
Reports say that Priya’s family is making efforts to agree with the deceased victim’s family regarding blood money. In April this year, the convict’s mother Prema Kumari went to Yemen to get her daughter out of prison. This was the first time she met Nimisha in 11 years.
The negotiation bid was stalled due to a delay in the payment to Abdullah Ameer, the lawyer appointed on behalf of Nimisha Priya. The lawyer had demanded USD 40,000 in two instalments as pre-negotiation fees and stated that the legal proceeding would not move further until the entire amount is paid.
Reports say that initially, Ameer demanded $20,000 (Rs 16 lakh approximately) of which $19, 871 was already paid to Ameer in July by the Indian External Affairs Ministry.
The Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council initially crowdfunded money for the lawyer’s fees, however, they later struggled with ensuring transparency to the donors regarding the usage of the raised funds.
Nimisha Priya had a dispute with Talal Abdo Mehdi over a clinic partnership
After finishing her nursing program, she went to Yemen in 2008 to support her daily-wage worker parents. She first worked in numerous hospitals in Yemen before deciding to create her own clinic.
Back in 2014, Priya got acquainted with Talal Abdo Mahdi, who promised to assist her in opening her clinic. A partnership was essential since Yemeni law requires all businesses to be started with a local partner. The duo, however, called the partnership off due to differences.
A year later, Nimisha Priya opened her clinic without involving Mahdi, which apparently enraged him who then reportedly started threatening Priya and took her passport to prevent her from leaving Yemen. Consequently, Priya filed a complaint against him, which resulted in his arrest in 2016. Mahdi, however, was released after some time.
In her plea filed before the Yemeni Supreme Court, Nimisha Priya’s mother alleged that Mahdi had stolen Nimisha’s wedding photograph when he accompanied her to Kerala on a month-long holiday. He manipulated the photograph to later claim that Nimisha was married to him.
Moreover, when the duo returned and Nimisha opened her clinic on her own, Mahdi allegedly embezzled her clinic’s revenue and also manipulated the clinic’s ownership documents. Priya further claimed that upon confronting Mahdi over the alleged embezzlement, he grew hostile and began taking money from Priya’s earnings against her will by using the morphed photograph to claim that the duo were married to each other. In addition, Priya’s plea states that while Mahdi was earlier harassing Nimisha, he soon resorted to physically torturing her and seized her passport.
Furthermore, when she approached Sanaa police in this regard, instead of acting against Mahdi, the police arrested her and jailed her for 6 days.
“After a while, Nimisha’s clinic began, Mahdi manipulated the ownership documents of the clinic. He also began to take money out of her monthly earnings after telling everyone that Nimisha was his wife Nimisha had alleged that Mahdi had been harassing her and her family for years. Mahdi also seized her passport. This was done to ensure that she would not leave Yemen. He tortured her under the influence of drugs. He threatened her at gunpoint several times. He took all the money from the clinic and her ornaments,” the plea states.
Yemeni national’s murder
In 2017, when the two were having a dispute, Priya injected him with sedatives in a bid to regain her passport from his possession. However, Mahdi died from an overdose and Nimisha Priya was convicted of the murder a year later and sentenced to death.
Priya’s family has been working to get the death punishment waived. Her mother, Prema Kumari, filed an appeal against the death sentence with the Yemini Supreme Court, but it was dismissed in 2023.
In July 2017, Priya allegedly approached the warden of a jail near her clinic, who advised her to drug Mahdi and then obtain her passport. However, Mahdi was a substance abuser, therefore the dose did not work for him as desired. Subsequently, Nimisha Priya allegedly attempted to sedate Mahdi again, this time with the help of her fellow nurse Hannan, however, Mahdi died from an overdose. The two panicked and chopped Mahdi’s body before putting it in a water tank.
The accused duo were soon arrested and in 2018, Priya was convicted of murder. A trial court in Sanaa sentenced her to death in 2020, and Yemen’s Supreme Judicial Council rejected her appeal in November 2023. Meanwhile, Hannan received a life sentence.
While Priya was awarded the death sentence, she had the option to give blood money to Mahdi’s family since her death sentence could only be waived if the deceased victim’s family pardoned her.
