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Indian nurse Nimisha Priya's daughter, husband in Yemen, appeal for her release | Watch
Nimisha Priya's daughter Mishel, husband Thomas part of video appeal by evangelist KA Paul to Houthis to release the Kerala nurse, who is on death row
Thirteen-year-old Mishel, daughter of imprisoned Indian nurse Nimisha Priya, is now in Sana'a, Yemen, and was part of a video appeal by Indian Christian evangelist KA Paul to the Houthi administration to release her mother, who is on death row for a murder.
“I love you, mamma,” Mishel can be heard saying as she speaks in Malayalam and English. Her speech is not legible. Her father, Priya's husband Thomas, can be seen with her in the video posted by news agency PTI. He thanks the Houthi administration for halting her release, which was scheduled for July 15.
The main speaker, and the one clearly audible, is Kilari Anand Paul, an evangelist from Andhra Pradesh who is the founder of a US-based organisation called Global Peace Initiative.
Paul starts off by inviting Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, the leader of the rebel group that administers capital Sana'a and large parts of Yemen, to what he calls a global peace summit in New York in September. Saying that “love is more powerful than hatred”, he also offers to mediate for lasting peace in Yemen, which has been ravaged by years of civil war.
Most countries, including the US and India, do not formally recognise the Houthi administration. This has been one of the biggest reasons why mediation in Nimisha Priya's case has been complicated.
Earlier, another religious leader — Sunni Muslim ‘Grand Mufti of India’ Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musliyar, officially known as Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad, from Priya's native state Kerala — had intervened too.
The Indian government then said its connections via other friendly governments had led to the halt in Nimisha Priya's execution, which was scheduled for July 16.
Efforts are on to pay blood money to victim's family, who have so far refused it and demanded her death instead.
