Kerala Nurse Nimisha Priya’s Execution In Yemen Put On Hold, Her Counsel Says
Indian nurse Nimisha Priya, on death row in Yemen, will not be executed on July 16, her counsel has said. However, the fresh date for her execution was not immediately known.
Sources told that the Kerala nurse’s execution was halted by the authorities in Yemen.
The government of India, which has, since the beginning of the case, been rendering all possible assistance in the matter, 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.
A letter on the postponement of her execution was shared.
Indian officials have also been in regular touch with the local jail authorities and the prosecutor’s office in Yemen.
Nimisha Priya, a nurse from Palakkad district in Kerala, is on the death row for the murder of Mahdi, her Yemeni business partner.
She was sentenced to death in 2020, and her final appeal was rejected in 2023.
She is currently imprisoned in a jail in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen.
Earlier today, news agency quoted sources and stated that last-minute efforts to halt Nimisha Priya’s execution were underway, under the leadership of a Sufi scholar there, at the behest of influential Sunni Muslim leader Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musliyar.
A meeting between representatives of prominent scholar and Sufi leader Sheikh Habib Umar bin Hafiz, and the family of Talal Abdo Mahdi – the Yemeni national allegedly killed by Nimisha Priya in 2017, was also expected to be held at Dhamar on Tuesday, it mentioned.
The development follows after the 94-year-old Musliyar, who is officially known as Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad and holds the title of Grand Mufti of India, held talks with religious authorities in Yemen.
Kanthapuram’s office told that a close relative of the deceased Talal, who is also the Chief Justice of the Hodeidah State Court and a member of the Yemeni Shura Council, had arrived in Dhamar, Talal’s hometown, to take part in today’s talks, following the advice of Sheikh Habib Umar.
On Monday, the Centre had informed the Supreme Court that the government could do “nothing much” in the case.
Attorney General R Venkataramani had informed a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta that the government was doing “utmost possible”.
“The Government of India is trying its best,” Venkataramani said, “and has also engaged with some sheikhs who are very influential people there.”
