Malayali nurse Nimisha Priya may be executed on July 16, say unconfirmed reports

Malayali nurse Nimisha Priya, who is on death row at the Central prison in Yemen’s capital Sanaa for the alleged murder of a Yemeni national, is scheduled to be executed on July 16, according to unconfirmed reports.

Though a few online and television media houses reported the development, there was no official confirmation yet from her family members or the representatives of the Save Nimisha Priya Action Council, which had initiated legal and other measures secure her release from prison.

“Ms. Priya was convicted for the crime of murder in Yemen in June 2018 and the local court handed out death sentence to her. We have been closely following the matter since then. We have been in regular touch with local authorities and her family members and rendered all possible assistance. We continue to closely follow the matter,” an official source told The Hindu.

Subhash Chandran K.R., member of the council and Supreme Court lawyer, said they were yet to get any official confirmation. The council has also not received any reports of confirmation by the Ministry of External Affairs.

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Efforts to contact Samuel Jerome Bhaskaran, member of the council who has been working in Yemen for over 24 years and coordinating the negotiations with the family members of the victim to accept blood money, failed. Tomy Thomas, Ms. Priya’s husband, said he had not yet received any official word on her execution.

Prema Kumari, mother of Ms. Priya, had reached Sana’a on April 23, 2024 as part of her efforts to save her daughter. She has been staying with Mr. Samuel since then.

A native of Palakkad, Ms. Priya was imprisoned for the alleged murder of Talal Abdo Mehdi, a Yemeni national in July 2017. She was sentenced to death by a trial court in Sanaa in 2020 and the Yemen’s Supreme Judicial Council had dismissed her appeal in November 2023 while keeping the option of paying blood money open. Sanaa is controlled by the Houthi rebels.

Ms. Priya had left for Yemen in 2008 to help her parents, who were daily wage labourers. She worked in a few hospitals in Yemen before deciding to start her own clinic in 2015. The family said that differences cropped up with Mehdi, her local partner, after she questioned him about the alleged embezzlement of funds.

She allegedly injected him with sedatives in an attempt to reclaim her passport that he had confiscated and an overdose resulted in his death.