Nimisha Priya Case: Indian Nurse on Death Row in Yemen

Nimisha Priya is on death row at the Central prison in Yemen’s capital Sanaa. She has been charged with the muder of a Yemeni citizen. With her execution slated for 16th July, it can be said that the government has exhausted all possible ways to get her pardoned. But how did this unique case come about?

Left with Dreams, Burdened with Reality

Nimisha, a native of Kollengode in Palakkad district of Kerala, left for Yemen in 2008 for better work opportunities. She joined a government hospital in Sanaa as a nurse. In April 2015, the GOI issued an advisory. It asked Indian nationals not to travel to Yemen. The advisory was due to the adverse political and security situation. This situation was triggered by the rift between the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition forces in Yemen. 

But Nimisha had left for Yemen a month before and her husband as well as her daughter were left in India. In 2015, she started her own clinic to earn better. Due to Yemeni laws that require citizens to own businesses, she partnered with  Yemeni national Talal Abdo Mahdi. Her relationship with Mahdi deteriorated over time after he allegedly began torturing her, confiscated her passport, and siphoned off all the clinic’s revenue. Her mother stated this in a petition to the Delhi HC to get permission for visiting her daughter. 

Desperate Actions to Escape Backfired

By July 2017, Nimisha was desperate. She sought advice from a jail warden where Mahdi had previously been imprisoned for various offences. The warden suggested sedating Mahdi to recover her passport. However, an apparent overdose resulted in his death.

A month later, Mahdi’s body was discovered in a water tank. In connection to the case, Nimisha was arrested near the Yemen-Saudi Arabia border. She was sentenced to death by a trial court in Sanaa in 2020. The Houthi Supreme Council dismissed her appeal in November 2023. They kept the option of paying blood money open.

Attempts to Help Nimisha

Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council was formed in 2020. It is an organisation fighting for the life of an Indian nurse in Yemen. It includes elected representatives, lawyers and human rights activists to help Nimisha and raise funds for blood money. This organisation intervened, allowing Premakumari to travel to Yemen. There, she met her daughter in prison and sought pardon for her with Mahdi’s family.

A Yemen-based member, Samuel Jerome Baskaran, was the conduit for receiving news of Nimisha’s execution. He told the media last week about a message he received. The message came from the chairman of the central prison in Sanaa. It stated that Nimisha’s execution had been scheduled for July 16. 

The organisation also filed a petition with the Supreme Court, seeking all government support to save Nimisha’s life. The Ministry of External Affairs had announced on December 31, 2024. They stated that the Government of India was extending all possible assistance to Nimisha. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene with Yemeni authorities and save her.

GOI has Done All it Could

The Indian Government’s lack of strong ties with the Houthi rebels is a challenge in this case. Exorbitant fee charged by Nimisha’s lawyer to talk to the family of the victim is another obstacle. However, the Indian Embassy in Yemen assisted by bearing this cost. 

On July 14, there was a hearing in the petition filed by Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council. The Centre told the SC that “the Government of India is doing whatever is utmost possible” in the matter. Attorney General R. Venkataramani informed a Supreme Court Bench that Yemen’s sensitivity and status limit the actions the Government of India can take.

But the council’s representative in the apex court had stated that the option to pay ‘blood money (diyah)’ to the murdered man’s family and be pardoned for the crime was still open. Nimisha’s life will be saved only if the victim’s family agree to pardon her.

Blood Money Provision of Sharia Law

Nimisha’s family has offered ₹8.6 crore as blood money to the victim’s family. Blood money is a provision where money is paid in compensation to the family of someone who has been killed.

In pre-Islamic times, the family of the victim could kill every member of the perpetrator’s family who was of equal value to his family as the victim had been to his. Blood money came forth as a peaceful alternative to revenge. Traditionally, diyat was set at 100 camels for the death of a person and proportionally for lesser injuries. Today, monetary equivalents are calculated by courts. In cases where the crime was committed intentionally, the victim’s family can decide whether to execute the perpetrator, to take blood money, or to pardon them. However, in many cases, modern Islamic criminal codes generally provide for punishment by the state.

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