 "Nimisha Priya, the Kerala nurse on death row in Yemen, will not be executed today, July 16. Image courtesy: Save Nimisha Priya Action council/CNN")
On July 16, Kerala-born nurse Nimisha Priya was all set to be executed by authorities in Yemen after she was convicted for the murder of her former business partner, a Yemeni national, back in 2017.
However, the 38-year-old and her loved ones were granted a huge reprieve on Tuesday, July 15, when Yemeni authorities deferred her execution. Following the news, her husband, Tomy Thomas, who is in India, heaved a huge sigh of relief, telling news agency PTI, “The execution has been postponed. That is good news. We are happy and relieved. I am sure efforts will continue to avert her execution and bring her back safely.”
An order for execution and last minute reprieve
A nurse from Kerala’s Palakkad, Nimisha moved to Yemen in 2011 and later partnered with Yemeni local, Talal Abdo Mehdi, to open a clinic. However, in 2017, in an effort to secure her passport from Mehdi, she sedated him. However, it went totally awry and he died of an overdose. She subsequently dismembered his body and dumped it in a water tank.
She was arrested and in 2020, a local court sentenced her to death. Her family challenged the decision in Yemen’s Supreme Court, but their appeal was rejected in 2023. Then last December, Yemen’s President Rashad al-Alimi approved the death sentence for Nimisha Priya.
And it was announced that Nimisha, who has been lodged at a central prison in Yemen’s Sana’a, would face the gallows on July 16.
However, just hours before the former nurse was to be sentenced to death, on Tuesday, came the big reprieve that her execution was halted, at least for now. No fresh date for her execution has been made until now.
Hectic parleys and diplomatic interventions
According to social worker Samuel Jerome Baskaran, who has been leading the negotiations in Yemen to secure Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya’s release, the delay in the execution of Nimisha came at the eleventh hour.
He told the Indian Express that the decision came after Abdul Malik Al Nehaya, ruler of the Al Wasab region, met the President of Yemen last Friday. A day later, President Rashad al-Alimi consented to defer the execution. “The Indian government also got involved in this mission. There was a directive from the Yemen authorities not to disclose the details,” he was quoted as telling Indian Express.
He further explained that the president’s order reached the prosecutor on Monday and following this, on July 14, the public prosecutor issued an order, saying that based on the direction of the attorney general, the execution of the retaliation sentence against Nimish is postponed.
While more details haven’t come in on how the deferment came about, the timing is significant. It comes after the Indian government said that it has “made concerted efforts in recent days to seek more time for the family of Nimisha Priya to reach a mutually agreeable solution with the other party”.
Living on a prayer
According to Subhash Chandran, lawyer and core member of Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council, the deferment in Nimisha’s execution came just after Mehdi’s brother came to the negotiating table.
In Yemen, a person on death row can be freed if the family of the victim agrees to their release after receiving diyya, blood money . Under the Sharia law, which governs Yemen, this legally sanctioned financial compensation to the family of the murder victim is a valid alternative to capital punishment. However, it has to be accepted by the kin.
Chandran was quoted as telling NDTV, “For the first time since the case began, the brother of the victim came to the table a day before the date of her execution. We talked all night. By late morning, the execution was deferred. We got what we wanted, some time to persuade the family now.”
Chandran also noted that it was the efforts of Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musliyar, a prominent Indian Muslim cleric, which led to this change.
But who is this cleric? The 94-year-old, who is officially known as Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad and is revered as ‘Grand Mufti of India’, made last-minute efforts to halt the execution of Nimisha, with support from a Yemeni Sufi scholar, according to news agencies.
He told media agencies in Kerala on Tuesday that he successfully appealed to Yemeni scholars to intervene in Nimisha Priya’s case considering the importance to saving a human life. A report by Gulf News said that Musliyar reportedly made contact with key clerics close to the victim’s family — a connection no one else had managed to establish.
“I don’t know the family, but I contacted responsible scholars in Yemen from afar,” Kanthapuram was quoted telling Gulf News. “They understood the situation. Islam is a religion that places a lot of importance on humanity.”
Earlier, Mehdi’s family had shown no inclination to negotiate with the Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council. In fact, the brother, Abdelfattah Mehdi, told BBC, “Our stance on the attempts at reconciliation is clear; we insist on implementing God’s Law in Qisas [retaliation in kind], nothing else.”
He further added, “Any dispute, whatever its reasons and however big, can never justify a murder —let alone dismembering, mutilating and hiding the body.”
Mercy still eludes Nimisha Priya
It’s important to note here that Nimisha has only been granted a temporary reprieve for now; she hasn’t been forgiven. For her to be freed, the victim’s family — the Mehdis — have to pardon her and accept her donation of “diyya”, dubbed blood money.
As of date, Nimisha Priya’s family has offered $1 million (Rs 8.6 crore) as blood money to the victim’s family. However, they have shown no inclination to accept it. Babu John, an activist with the Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council, told NDTV, “We have proposed $1 million to save Nimisha Priya. The Yemeni man’s family has not said yes or no. Once the family says yes, we will mobilise the funds and give them to the family if they are ready to pardon Nimisha.”
Even Chandran notes that diyya is the only way out for Nimisha now. “There will be no more hearings. The judiciary has done what it could. Now it’s entirely up to the victim’s family. If they accept the diyya and pardon her, Nimisha lives. If not, we will lose her.”
With inputs from agencies