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India extending ‘all possible help’ to Nimisha Priya on death row in Yemen
The 36-year-old nurse from Palakkad in Kerala is being held in a jail in Sana’a, currently under the control of Iran-backed Houthi rebels
New Delhi: India said on Friday that it continues to extend all possible help to Nimisha Priya, an Indian national on death row in Yemen whose death sentence was recently approved by President Rashad al-Alimi.
“We are closely following the developments around the sentencing of Nimisha Priya and thereafter. The government is extending all possible help in the matter,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said while responding to questions on the issue at a regular media briefing.
The matter has assumed urgency since President Rashad al-Alimi approved Priya’s death sentence on Monday. The 36-year-old nurse from Palakkad in Kerala is being held in a jail in Sana’a, currently under the control of Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
Priya was arrested in July 2017 for the murder of a Yemeni citizen who was her partner in a business. She was sentenced to death by a Yemeni court in 2020 and this was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2023. Her death sentence was approved by the president after efforts to secure her release through the Islamic tradition of “diyat”, or paying “blood money” to the victim’s family, failed.
Priya’s mother Premakumari travelled to Yemen last year to take up the negotiations for payment of blood money. She is being assisted in these efforts by a group of non-resident Indians in Yemen.
Also Read: What is blood money, that could save Indian nurse on death row in Yemen?
People familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity that negotiations to find a way out through the payment of blood money were continuing in Sana’a. They declined to provide details in view of the sensitive nature of the case and the different power centres involved in the negotiations. Officials from the Indian embassies in Yemen and Saudi Arabia are playing a role in these negotiations, they said.
On Thursday, a senior Iranian official had told Indian reporters that Tehran is willing to do whatever it can on humanitarian grounds to aid Priya. The remarks assume significance as Sana’a is under the control of the Houthi movement, which has a representative office in Tehran.
