India on Tuesday said it is extending all possible help to explore relevant options in the case of an Indian nurse facing death sentence in Yemen.
Nimisha Priya, hailing from Kollengode in Kerala's Palakkad district, has been reportedly handed capital punishment for allegedly murdering a Yemeni citizen.
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) official spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said New Delhi is extending all possible help in the matter.
"We are aware of the sentencing of Nimisha Priya in Yemen. We understand that the family of Priya is exploring relevant options," Jaiswal said. "The government is extending all possible help in the matter," he added. Jaiswal was replying to a media query.
Reports said Priya was handed capital punishment by a trial court in 2020 and Yemen's Supreme Judicial Council upheld the verdict in November 2023. Yemen's President Rashad al-Alimi has reportedly approved Priya's death sentence. She is in prison since 2017.
Priya was arrested for the alleged murder of Yemeni national Talal Abdo Mehdi in July 2017. A trial court in Sana'a sentenced her to death in 2020 and her appeal was dismissed by Yemen's Supreme Judicial Council in November 2023.
However, the option of paying blood money was kept open. Her release depended on getting the family of the victim, Talal Abdo Mehdi, and their tribal leader to forgive her. Her death sentence could have been set aside if the victim's family pardoned her and accepted blood money.
The negotiations for the same were underway.
However, they were stalled after the payment to the lawyer appointed on behalf of Priya got delayed. The lawyer had demanded USD 40,000 in two instalments as pre-negotiation fees. He refused to proceed further unless the entire amount was given to him.
Priya's mother Prema Kumari went to Yemen in April 2024 and met her daughter at the prison there for the first time in 11 years. Since then, her mother has been in the country trying to secure her daughter's release.
Nimisha left for Yemen in 2008 and worked in a few hospitals there, before starting her own clinic in 2015, with Mehdi as her local partner, which is required under Yemeni law.
According to her family, differences arose between the two when she questioned him about some alleged embezzlement.
To reclaim her passport, which was supposedly in Mehdi's custody, she allegedly injected him with sedatives in an attempt to make him unconscious. However, an overdose resulted in his death. She was taken into custody while reportedly trying to flee Yemen.
