Yemen court rejects appeal against Nimisha Priya's death sentence

New Delhi: The Supreme Court of Yemen has rejected the appeal against the death sentence of Nimishi Priya, a Malayali nurse who is jailed in that country for killing a citizen.

The Central government's lawyer informed the Delhi High Court about the matter. Only the President of Yemen can grant relief to Nimisha Priya now. The court was considering a petition submitted by her mother Prema Mary seeking permission to visit Yemen. The HC has directed the respective authorities to give a decision on the matter in a week's time.

Palakkad native Nimisha Priya was convicted of murdering Yemen national Talal Abdo Mahdi. Nimisha's mother plans to hold talks with Mahdi's family to get her daughter's release from jail. Though the central government has planned to release the Palakkad woman by paying blood money to the Yeman man's family in 2022, there was no progress following this. Nimisha's mother and members of Save Nimisha Priya Forum, a collective formed in solidarity with the nurse, have been planning to fly to Yemen for the mediation.

Case in a nutshell
Nimisha had been working in Yemen when travel to and from the country was banned in 2016 due to the civil war there. Her husband and daughter returned to India in 2014, but she couldn't due to her job. In 2015, with the help of a Yemeni national Talal Mahdi, she set up a clinic.

Soon, differences cropped up between her and Mahdi and she alleged that he abused and tortured her. The Yemeni also took her passport away, making her trip back home impossible. Mahdi also misrepresented himself as her husband to the Yemeni authorities, due to which she couldn't get any aid from them, she alleged in her statement.

On July 25, 2017, she injected Mahdi with sedatives with the aim of sedating him to take her passport back and flee from there. But things went awry and he collapsed a while after she administered the sedative.

Realising that Mahdi had died,  she disposed of his body, with another person's help. Four days later, the crime surfaced and both were arrested. Nimisha was sentenced to death and the other person was sentenced to life.