Yemen court upholds Kerala nurse’s death sentence

While the nurse, Nimisha Priya (33), still has a chance to approach the Supreme Judicial Council headed by the President of Yemen, the possibility for any relief appears bleak

An appeals court in the west Asian country of Yemen on Monday upheld the death sentence awarded to a nurse from Kerala for murdering a Yemini citizen five years ago, social workers in Yemen informed her relatives.

Nurse Nimisha Priya is from Kollengode in Palakkad district

While the nurse, Nimisha Priya (33), still has a chance to approach the Supreme Judicial Council headed by the President of Yemen, the possibility for any relief appears bleak as the apex council rarely sets aside the verdict of the appeals court, the workers told her relatives in Palakkad.

“The relatives of the deceased and local people are fiercely opposing any remission. Fluid political situation in the country is also not encouraging. We are trying our best to save her life,” Babu Scaria, an activist based in Dubai, said.

The case dates back to 2017 when Priya and her colleague Hanan, a Yemini national injected Talal Abu Mahadi, a Yemeni citizen, with sedatives and killed him.

A mother of a seven-year-old child, Priya is from Kollengode in Palakkad district and was working in Yemen’s Sana’a since 2011. Three years later, she set up a nursing clinic with Talal, whom she met through a labour contractor, her relatives said. (other than this they have no idea how they came closer) Later her husband and child returned to India but could not return on account of the war in Yemen.

Under Yemeni law, only nationals are allowed to set up such medical firms.

There are multiple narratives of the story at this point. But all agree that Talal started misappropriating money, misrepresented himself through forged documents as Priya’s husband, abused her physically, and seized her passport.

“When the clinic started delivering good returns and Talal started taking out all the money, Nimisha questioned him. In return, he harassed and tortured her. She complained to the police who failed to take appropriate action. Angered by her police complaint, Talal took away her passport,” one of the relatives cited above said, seeking anonymity.

In 2017, Priya and Hanan injected Talal with sedatives and killed him. They reportedly chopped his body before disposing it in a water tank of the clinic and fled the city.

Talal’s body was recovered a few days later when local residents complained of a stench and a month later, both Priya and Hanan were arrested, her relatives said.

In 2018, while Nimisha was awarded capital punishment, Hanan was sentenced to life imprisonment by a lower court.

“He tortured me for more than two years and had turned me into a slave,” Priya was quoted as saying by one of her relatives during a telephonic conversation.

When the case was being heard in the appeal court two weeks ago, the family of the deceased and several local residents gathered outside the premises to protest against Nimisha’s mercy plea and demanded immediate execution of her sentence. According to her relatives she approached two courts in 2020 and 21, but both rejected her mercy plea. They said her frequent mercy pleas angered relatives of the deceased and they even held a protest outside the court decrying delay in carrying out the sentence.

Priya’s family said they had appealed to the ministry of external affairs for assistance but were told the government’s role was limited in such criminal cases.

“In this case option through blood money is not that easy. The victim’s family has been firm on sentence. Still we hope the supreme council will help her. I personally feel her part of torture and suffering was not heard properly,” said senior advocate K LBalachandran who has been co-ordinating with legal team in Yemen to commute her sentence.

“We still have some hope. If the government takes it up with its Yemeni counterpart, she can be pardoned and extradited,” Priya’s husband Tomi Thomas said.

He said he had to sell off his house to meet the high legal expenses. He also had to do away with his shop and resort to driving an auto rickshaw for a living, he claimed.