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Iranian official offers assistance on humanitarian grounds to Indian nurse facing death penalty in Yemen
Indian nurse Nimisha Priya has been sentenced to death in Yemen on charges of murdering a Yemeni citizen.
An Iranian official has said he is willing to assist on humanitarian grounds the case of Indian nurse Nimisha Priya who has been sentenced to death in Yemen on charges of murdering a Yemeni citizen.
Reports said Nimisha 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.
"On humanitarian ground, we are willing to do whatever we can," news agency ANI quoted a senior Iranian official as saying.
Nimisha Priya is a trained nurse and has worked in private hospitals in Yemen for a few years. Her husband and minor daughter returned to India in 2014 because of financial reasons and that year Yemen was gripped by civil war, ANI reported, adding that they they could not go back as the country stopped issuing new visas.
What is the case
In 2015, Nimisha joined hands with a Yemeni national, Talal Abdo Mahdi, to set up her clinic in Yemen's capital city Sana. She sought Mahdi's support as Yemen's law allowed only nationals to set up clinics and business firms. The same year, Mahdi accompanied Nimisha Priya to Kerala when she came for a month-long holiday and, during the visit, reportedly stole a wedding photograph of Nimisha, which he later manipulated to claim that he was married to her, the report said.
After a while, Nimisha's clinic began, Mahdi manipulated the ownership documents of the clinic and also began to take money out of her monthly earnings after telling everyone that Nimisha was his wife, a plea moved by Nimisha Priya's mother, cited in the report, stated.
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Nimisha had alleged that Mahdi had been harassing her and her family for years and also seized her passport, the plea said. "This was done to ensure that she would not leave Yemen. He tortured her under the influence of drugs. He threatened her at gunpoint several times. He took all the money from the clinic and her ornaments," the plea added.
The plea further alleged that unable to cope with the torture, Nimisha complained to the police in Sana but instead of taking action against Mahdi, the police arrested her and put her in jail for six days. It was further alleged that on her return from jail, the severity of the torture increased manifold.
In July, 2017, Nimisha sought help from a warden of a jail located near her clinic. The warden suggested that she should try to sedate him, and then convince him to give her passport.
However, things went awry as the sedation did not affect Mahdi, who was a substance abuser. Nimisha reportedly tried sedating him again, using a stronger sedative, however, he died within a few minutes due to overdose.
