Nimisha Priya: Last hope for Indian nurse on death row in Yemen

Relatives of an Indian nurse who was nearly killed in war-torn Yemen say they are waiting for a last-ditch effort to save her.

Nimisha Priya, 34, was sentenced to death in the murder of a local man – former business partner Talal Abdo Mahdi – whose dismembered body was found in a water tank in 2017.

After being held in a central prison in Sanaa, facing execution soon, Mahdi al-Mashat, the president of the Houthis’ Supreme Political Council, will accept his sentence this week.

Under the Islamic legal system, known as Sharia, the only way to prevent executions is now to obtain forgiveness from the victim’s family. For several months, Nimisha’s brothers and sisters tried to do something by raising the money, especially the money, to be given to the Mahdi family, and the discussion is going on.

But in the long run, followers say their hope lies in the family’s decision.

With the president’s decision coming, the prosecutor’s office will also ask for permission from Mahdi’s family and ask if they have any objections to the execution, said Samuel Jerome, a Yemeni development worker who has the power to represent Nimisha. mother.

“If he says that he doesn’t want to or can forgive him, the punishment will be suspended immediately,” he said.

“Forgiveness is the first step. Whether the family accepts the blood money comes later.”

Under Yemeni law, Nimisha’s family cannot directly contact the victim’s family and must hire negotiators.

Subhash Chandran, a lawyer who previously represented Nimisha’s family in India, told the BBC that the family had already paid $40,000 (£32,268) to the victim’s family. The money has been paid in two installments to lawyers hired by the Indian government to negotiate the case (the delay in sending the second installment affected the negotiations, Jerome said).

“Now we have to find out how to answer the discussion with a [victim’s] family, which is possible with the help of the Indian government,” said Chandran.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs has said that it is aware of Nimisha’s plight and is providing all possible assistance to the family.

His family is worried and hopeful.

“Nimisha doesn’t know what’s going on beyond the prison gates,” said her husband Tony Thomas, who spoke to her hours before she accepted the death penalty. “What they want to know is that our son is okay.”

Nimisha’s mother is in Sanaa, she went there last year after the court in India to be allowed to go to an area controlled by the Houthi rebels. Since then she has met her daughter in prison twice.

The first reunion was very emotional. “Nimisha saw me… she said I was weak and asked me to be brave, and that God will save her. She asked me not to be sad,” her mother Prema Kumari told the BBC.

The second time, Mrs. Kumari accompanied two nuns who were praying for her daughter in prison.

Nimisha was not yet 19 years old when he went to Yemen.

The daughter of an underpaid domestic worker, she wanted to improve her family’s finances, and worked as a nurse at a government hospital in Sanaa for several years.

In 2011, she returned to her hometown – the city of Kochi in southern India – and married Thomas, a tuk-tuk driver.

The couple moved to Yemen together soon after. But financial problems forced Mr Thomas to return to India with his daughter.

Tired of cheap medical services, Nimisha decided to open her own clinic in Yemen.

Since the local law required him to have a local partner, he opened the clinic together with Mahdi, who owns a shop.

The two were initially close friends – when Nimisha went to India briefly for her daughter’s baptism, Mahdi accompanied her.

“He seemed like a nice guy when he came to our house,” Mr Thomas told the BBC.

But Mahdi’s views, Thomas says, “suddenly changed” after Yemen’s civil war broke out in 2014.

At that time, Nimisha was trying to complete the paperwork for her husband and daughter to come back.

But when the war started, the Indian government banned him from going to Yemen, which made it impossible for him to go to Yemen.

In the coming days, thousands of Indians were evacuated from the country, but Nimisha chose to stay, as he took out huge loans to open his hospital.

It was at that time that Nimisha began to complain about Mahdi’s behavior, including allegations of torture, Mr. Thomas.

The petition to the court, which was filed by a group called Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council, said that Mahdi took all her money, took her passport and threatened her with a gun.

After Mahdi’s body was found in 2017, the police accused Nimisha of murdering him by giving him “drugs” and allegedly dismembering his body.

Nimisha denied the allegations. In court, his lawyer said that he tried to drug Mahdi to take his passport, but his dose was accidentally increased.

In 2020, a lower court sentenced Nimisha to death. Three years later, in 2023, his family appealed the decision to the Supreme Court of Yemen, but their appeal was rejected.

Although the situation has changed a lot, the family does not want to lose hope.

“My heart says we can get to a safe place and save Nimisha’s life,” Thomas said.

Above all, she said she is worried about her daughter, now 13, who “has never seen a mother’s love”.

“They talk on the phone every week and my daughter gets upset when she misses the call,” Mr Thomas said.

“What does he want his mother to do without him?”

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