Explained: Who is Indian nurse Nimisha Priya and why is she on death row in Yemen

Nimisha Priya, a 30-year-old nurse hailing from Kerala state of India has been lodged in a jail in Yemen since 2017 for allegedly killing a Yemeni citizen with who she was once in a partnership. Her mother arrived in the country on Tuesday in efforts to secure her daughter's release

Ashish Verma Published: 24 Apr 2024 12:54:PM

Explained: Who is Indian nurse Nimisha Priya and why is she on death row in Yemen

Indian nurse Nimisha Priya has been lodged in jail in Yemen after being convicted and handed a death sentence for the alleged murder of a man who had threatened and confiscated her passport.

New Delhi: 57-year-old Prema Kumari landed in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, on Tuesday in hopes of saving her daughter Nimish Priya (30), who has been sentenced to death by a court in the country for allegedly killing a Yemeni citizen and is currently lodged in jail.

Prema Kumari was accompanied by Samuel Jerome, the chairman of the Save Nimisha Action Council and a human rights activist leading the campaign to assist in the case. Jerome has been working in Yemen for the past 20 years. His council is facilitating the talks between the Indian Government and Yemen since the relocation of the Indian Embassy to Djibouti.

She is now hoping to meet her daughter in jail on Thursday and seek further assistance in her release.

Due to the absence of diplomatic ties between India and Yemen, and with the embassy relocated to Djibouti, the Save Nimisha Priya Action Council has stepped in. Advocate K.R. Subhash Chandran took charge of Nimisha Priya’s mother’s case in the Delhi High Court and maintained ongoing communication with the Ministry of External Affairs concerning the issue.

Why is Nimish Priya on death row in Yemen

30-year-old Nimisha, working as a nurse in Yemen, has been logged in jail since July 2017 in connection with the murder of Talal Abdo Madi, a Yemeni national. She was convicted of killing Mahdi and awarded a death sentence by a trial court in Yemen in 2018.

Her family has left no stone unturned since then to plead for her release but a blow came after Yemen’s Supreme Court rejected her appeal and the final call is for the country’s President to take.

Hailing from the Palakkad district in Kerala, Nimisha trained as a nurse and later moved to Yemen, where she worked in various private hospitals. In 2014, she met Talal Abdo Mahdi, who offered to help her start her own clinic, as local partnership is required by Yemeni law for business ventures.

However, their partnership turned sour and the two parted ways due to conflicts. Nimisha then started her clinic independently in 2015. Mahdi allegedly began threatening her and even confiscated her passport to prevent her from leaving Yemen.

In 2016, she filed a police complaint against Mahdi which led to his arrest but he continued to harass her after his release. In 2017, she injected him with sedatives in an attempt to retrieve her passport, but the man allegedly died from an overdose. Nimisha Priya was then arrested on murder charges, found guilty in 2018 and sentenced to death.