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SC to hear plea to halt execution of Kerala nurse in Yemen on July 14
On Thursday, the matter was mentioned for urgent listing before a bench comprising justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymalya Bagchi by senior advocate R Basant.
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The Supreme Court will hear on July 14 a plea seeking to halt the execution of Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya in Yemen, where she is reportedly scheduled to be hanged on July 16 for the alleged murder of a Yemeni national in 2017.
On Thursday, the matter was mentioned for urgent listing before a bench comprising justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymalya Bagchi by senior advocate R Basant. The court allowed the request for early hearing and posted it for July 14.
The bench also directed the petitioner to serve a copy of the plea on Attorney General R Venkataramani, observing that the Union government may apprise the court of the steps being taken in the matter at the next hearing.
The petition, filed by an organisation named Save Nimisha Priya Action Council, has urged the top court to direct the Union government to intervene through diplomatic channels to secure her release. It pointed out that under Shariat law, a person sentenced to death may be released if the victim’s family accepts “blood money” -- a form of financial compensation -- and requested the Centre’s help in facilitating such negotiations.
Priya, 38, a nurse from Palakkad, Kerala, was convicted for the murder of her business associate Talal Abdo Mahdi, a Yemeni national, and sentenced to death by a trial court in Sanaa in 2020. The sentence was upheld by Yemen’s Supreme Judicial Council in November 2023. In 2024, the country’s president, Rashad al-Alimi, gave final approval to the execution order, which has been pending with the prosecutor since January. The only reprieve now lies in securing a pardon from Mahdi’s family -- an outcome that remains uncertain.
The murder allegedly took place after 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. Priya had partnered with Mahdi to run a clinic in Yemen in 2015, but her family claims she faced sustained physical, mental, and financial abuse at his hands, and the situation deteriorated to the point of violence.
Priya had moved to Yemen in 2008 to support her parents, who were daily wage labourers in Kerala, and worked in several hospitals before starting her own clinic. Following her conviction, her mother, Prema Kumari, a domestic worker from Kochi, travelled to Yemen and has been camping in Sanaa for the past year to pursue legal remedies and appeal to the victim’s family for clemency.
In December last year, Kumari had approached the Delhi high court seeking exemption from the travel ban to the conflict-hit country to meet her daughter. Since her arrival in Sanaa, she has managed to meet Priya in prison a few times.
The ministry of external affairs had stated last year that it would extend all possible support to Priya and her family. Sanaa, where she is imprisoned, is currently under the control of Houthi rebels, further complicating diplomatic outreach.
