Hectic efforts on to prevent execution of Indian nurse Nimisha Priya in Yemen on July 16

Indian officials are engaged in hectic efforts to prevent the execution of Nimisha Priya, an Indian on death row in Yemen for murdering a Yemeni national whose death sentence is set to be carried out on July 16, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

Priya was arrested in July 2017 for murdering a Yemeni man who was her business partner. She was sentenced to death by a Yemeni court in 2020 and the Supreme Judicial Council dismissed Priya’s appeal in November 2023. She is currently in a jail in Sana’a, which is under the control of Houthi rebels.

Noting that Priya was convicted of murder and a Yemeni court had handed her the death sentence, the people said on condition of anonymity that efforts were underway to prevent the execution. The people confirmed that the execution has been scheduled for July 16.

“We have been closely following the matter since she was given the death sentence. We have been in regular touch with Yemeni authorities and her family members and rendered all possible assistance. We continue to closely follow the matter,” one of the people cited above said.

The government earlier said in Parliament that it was providing all assistance to the family of Priya.

The case has been complicated as the Indian side has no formal contacts with the Houthi rebels, and because efforts to secure Priya’s release through the Islamic tradition of “diyat”, or paying “blood money” to the victim’s family, ran into complications.

Priya’s mother Premakumari travelled to Yemen last year to take up negotiations for payment of blood money. She is being assisted in these efforts by a group of non-resident Indians in Yemen.