Indian nurse Nimisha Priya, who was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in Yemen, will be executed on July 16. Nimisha was convicted of murdering Yemeni citizen Talal Abdo Mehdi, with whom she ran a clinic in Yemen's capital city, Sanaa.
Samuel Jerome Baskaran, a social worker who is currently involved in negotiations with government officials in Yemen and Talal’s family, confirmed the development. “The public prosecutor had issued the letter of prosecution to the jail authorities. The execution is scheduled for July 16. Options are still open. The Government of India can intervene in the matter to save her life,” an Indian Express report quoted the social worker as saying.
According to Samuel, a pardon from Talal's family was made but they were yet to respond. Samuel said he will be leaving for Yemen to resume the negotiations. Nimisha's mother, a domestic worker in Kochi, has been camping in Yemen for the past year.
Nimisha had worked in Yemen for several years until she was accused of murdering Talal in 2017, the report said. She ran a clinic in Yemen with Talal's support, but allegedly faced mental, physical and financial abuse, which culminated in the murder. Reportedly, Talal died after Nimisha injected him with sedatives to get back her passport from possession.
Her death sentence was approved by then Yemeni president Rashad al-Alimi on December 30, 2024, after she was handed capital punishment by a trial court in 2020 and Yemen's Supreme Judicial Council upheld the verdict in November 2023. The order has been with the prosecutor since January this year, the IE report added.
Nimisha Priya, a trained nurse, worked in private hospitals in Yemen for several years. In 2014, her husband and young daughter returned to India due to financial difficulties and in the same year Yemen was caught in civil war. The issuing of new visas stopped, making it impossible for them to go back.
In 2015, she partnered with Talal to open a clinic in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, as local law only allowed nationals to establish businesses. Later that year, when Talal accompanied Nimisha to Kerala for a month-long holiday, he stole a wedding photograph of hers, which he later manipulated to claim that he was married to her.
In a plea moved by Nimisha's mother, she said, "After Nimisha's clinic began, Talal manipulated the ownership documents of the clinic. He also began to take money out of her monthly earnings after telling everyone that Nimisha was his wife. Nimisha had alleged that Talal had been harassing her and her family for years. He also seized her passport. 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 further alleged that unable to cope with the torture, Nimisha complained to the police in Sanaa but instead of taking action against Talal, 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.
