E-Paper
Reports claiming Nimisha Priya's death sentence in Yemen overturned 'inaccurate': Sources
The office of Musaliyar, the Grand Mufti of India, claimed on Monday that Priya’s death sentence had been overturned.
Information being shared by Indian cleric Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musaliyar’s and evangelist KA Paul about the case of Nimisha Priya, an Indian on death row in Yemen, is inaccurate, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
The office of Musaliyar, the Grand Mufti of India, claimed on Monday that Priya’s death sentence had been overturned. Paul, a Christian evangelist who has joined Priya’s husband and daughter in Yemen in efforts to save her, has also made claims regarding the case.
“Information being shared by certain individuals on the Nimisha Priya case is inaccurate,” one of the people cited above said on condition of anonymity.
Indian officials handling the case too have not confirmed any of the claims made by Musaliyar and Paul regarding the case.
Priya’s execution was scheduled for July 16 but was put off following the intervention of Indian officials and non-resident Indians who have been seeking a reprieve for the Indian nurse. The 38-year-old woman is in a prison in Sanaa, which is controlled by Houthi rebels.
India doesn’t have a diplomatic presence in Yemen and the matter is being handled by diplomats in the embassy in Saudi Arabia. Indian officials have focused on efforts to prevent the execution through the Islamic tradition of “diyat”, or paying “blood money” to the victim’s family.
Priya’s mother Premakumari travelled to Yemen last year to take up the negotiations for paying the blood money. She is being assisted in these efforts by a group of non-resident Indians in Yemen.
Priya was arrested in July 2017 for murdering a Yemeni man, Talal Abdo Mahdi, who was her business partner. She was sentenced to death by a Yemeni court in 2020 and the Supreme Judicial Council dismissed Priya’s appeal in November 2023.
The case ran into complications as the Indian side has no formal contacts with the Houthi rebels. Under Shariah law, a person sentenced to death may be pardoned by the victim’s family if blood money or financial compensation is accepted.
Priya injected Mahdi with sedatives in an attempt to retrieve her passport, which he had withheld amid escalating personal and financial disputes. An overdose reportedly led to his death.
