“There is a point till which the Government of India can go. We have reached that,” the Indian government's lawyer told the Supreme Court on Monday, two days ahead of Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya's scheduled execution in Yemen on July 16 for the murder of a local businessman in 2017.
‘Reached out to a sheikh’: What govt told SC in Nimisha Priya case
Attorney General R Venkataramani told the SC that every channel has been exhausted to seek reprieve for the 38-year-old nurse from Palakkad. "Nothing has worked so far,” and the situation may now lie beyond the Indian government’s control. The SC, hearing a plea filed by a citizens’ group called Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council, had sought the government's response.
The issue is complicated by the fact that India does not have formal diplomatic relations with the Houthis, a rebel group which controls parts of Yemen, including the capital Sana'a where Nimisha Priya is a convict.
The government lawyer said India reached out to “an influential sheikh” in Yemen to persuade the authorities there.
{{/usCountry}}The government lawyer said India reached out to “an influential sheikh” in Yemen to persuade the authorities there.
{{/usCountry}}“We got an informal communication that the execution would be put in abeyance, but we don’t know if it will work out,” he added.
A last-ditch request for suspension of the execution was sent even at 10.30 am on Monday, but there was no official response yet, the SC was told.
‘They say a matter of…': Why blood money has not worked
Under Sharia law, the Islamic jurisprudence followed in Houthi-controlled Yemen, even after conviction a murderer can be pardoned by the victim’s family. That is, if financial compensation — blood money, in simpler terms — is paid and accepted. The Save Nimisha Priya organisation told the court that Priya's family have been in touch with the victim family and arranged “a sizeable amount”.
But the victim’s family and the Houthi authorities have refused to engage. “They say it’s a question of honour... We don’t know if it changes with more money. But as of now, standstill,” the attorney general told the SC.
‘How can we…’: What SC said on possible order
The court said: “How can we pass that order with respect to a foreign nation? Who is going to follow it?”
The SC bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta adjourned the matter to July 18, but told all parties to inform it of any developments in the interim.
The case against Nimisha Priya is for the murder of her business associate, Talal Abdo Mahdi, a Yemeni national. Allegedly tortured by Mahdi, Priya injected him with sedatives in an attempt to retrieve her passport that he had been withholding. It resulted in a fatal overdose.
She was sentenced to death by a Sana'a trial court in 2020, upheld by the Supreme Judicial Council, the top body of the Houthi administration, three years later.
Her mother Prema Kumari has been in Sana'a for the past year to try for clemency.
How Yemen civil war played role in Nimisha Priya's life
Nimisha Priya, like a large number of nurses every year from Kerala, moved to a Gulf country — Yemen, in her case — in 2008 to earn a high salary for her parents, who were daily wagers. She worked in several hospitals before starting her own clinic. Abdi became her partner as it was mandatory to have a local partner for a business in Yemen. He later started abusing her, she had alleged.
She got married to a fellow Malayali in 2011, and they have a daughter together. The husband and daughter returned to India three years later over financial troubles.
Also read | Racing against the clock: Can Indian origin nurse Nimisha Priya be saved?
In the meantime, Sana'a was overrun by the Houthis in the Yemen civil war, and has been governed by them since. Even when her mother wanted to travel to the Houthi-held Yemen territory in December last year, she had to approach the Delhi high court for an exemption from the travel ban to the conflict-hit country. She has since managed to meet Priya in prison a few times.