Who is Nimisha Priya, the nurse from Kerala sentenced to death in Yemen?

Nimisha Priya, an Indian nurse in Yemen, is counting her last days after she was held guilty for killing a Yemeni national named Talal Abdo Mahdi.

The Yemeni Supreme Court has rejected appeals against her death sentence, thus it appears unlikely that she will be able to escape prison alive.

The decision was confirmed during a hearing in the Delhi High Court on Thursday.

She was sentenced to death by a trial court in Yemen in 2018.

About Nimisha Priya

Nimisha Priya, a trained nurse from Kerala’s Palakkad district, resided in Yemen with her spouse Tony Thomas and their daughter.

In 2014, her husband and daughter reportedly returned to India because of financial issues. Priya, nevertheless, carried on working in Yemen.

Upon her husband’s return home, Priya asked her husband’s friend Talal Abdo Mahdi for assistance in opening a clinic in Yemen. According to the local legislation, the assistance of a Yemeni national is required in order to obtain the necessary licences to open a business.

According to The News Minute, Priya started the clinic on her own in 2015, without Mahdi’s assistance. Mahdi began to insist on receiving his portion of the income as soon as she began earning revenue.

At this point, Mahdi and her relationship starts to deteriorate.

Reports state that he faked marriage licences and claimed Priya as his wife to everyone.

“When I questioned Talal about this, he said he had made the claim so others would not pose problems assuming I am a single woman,” Nimisha said, as reported by The News Minute.

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Priya says he was a substance abuser who frequently abused her physically. In 2016, she also filed a police complaint against him, which resulted in his arrest and eventual release.

Mahdi obtained Priya’s passport following his release, trapping her in the trouble.

The murder

In order to get her passport back in 2017, she gave him a sedative injection. But Mahdi quickly passed away from a drug overdose. She then turned to Abdul Hanan, the nurse who had assisted her in opening her clinic, for help. Following that, the two chopped his body and threw it in a water tank.

Residents discovered Mahdi’s body, and the police launched a manhunt for her. In August 2017, Priya and Hanan were taken into custody and sentenced to life in prison.

In 2018, Priya was given a death sentence following a year in jail.

The latest development

Yesterday’s court proceedings at the Delhi High Court involved Priya’s mother and a domestic help from Kerala, Premakumari requesting permission to visit Yemen, as per The News Minute.

Offering blood money as a means of negotiation with the relatives of the deceased, she pleaded, was the only way to save her daughter. In Yemen, a death sentence may be commuted in exchange for payment to the legal heir of the deceased.

In response to the appeal, the Delhi High Court ordered the government pleader to give details about who would be permitted to travel to Yemen under such conditions.

Although a final sum has not been finalised, talks suggest it can be Rs 70 lakh, which Priya claims she is unable to pay.

An organisation in India has started a campaign called “Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council” to raise money for Premakumari through crowdsourcing.

To further complicate matters, the Union government also told the Delhi High Court that the Yemeni President now has the power to overturn Priya’s punishment, as per Times Now.

Speaking on the subject, the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi, said that the Indian government is aware of the situation and is offering consular support as needed. It can’t do much, though, because it’s a legal matter.

The Centre had previously said that although the government would cover Mahdi’s expenses while she was behind bars, it was unable to provide Mahdi’s family with the blood money and would not participate in the negotiating process.

With inputs from agencies