New Delhi is providing legal help and facilitating consular access to the family of convicted murderer Nimisha Priya, Randhir Jaiswal has said
New Delhi is offering “all possible assistance” for Nimisha Priya, a 36-year old nurse who is on death row in Yemen for murdering her business partner, Indian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said on Thursday.
The authorities in Yemen have postponed her execution, which was scheduled for Wednesday, following the intervention of Indian officials, private citizens and an influential Muslim cleric from Nimisha’s home state of Kerala.
“We have provided legal assistance, and also appointed a lawyer to assist the family,” Jaiswal said in a press briefing, adding that India has also arranged for regular consular visits for her family.
While coordinating with the Yemeni authorities, India is also “in touch with some friendly governments in this regard,” the spokesman said without specifying the countries.
VIDEO | Delhi: Responding to a question on the case of Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia), while addressing a press briefing, said:
“This is a sensitive matter. The Government of India has been providing all possible assistance. We have… pic.twitter.com/bK0R8V8dAk
Jaiswal added that Indian assistance included “concerted efforts within the last few days to seek more time for the family of Miss Nimisha Priya to reach a mutually agreeable solution with the other party.”
Nimisha was arrested in July 2017 for poisoning Talal Abdo Mahdi, a Yemeni with whom she opened a clinic in 2015.
She was found guilty and sentenced to death in 2020. Her final appeal was dismissed by Yemen’s Supreme Judicial Council in November 2023.
Nimisha’s only recourse is to offer the victim’s clan ‘blood money’ as a form of financial compensation in exchange for freedom. While crowdsourcing efforts from the Indian diaspora have managed to raise more than $40,000 for the initial negotiation, Mahdi’s family are not willing to accept compensation.
“The pressures we’ve faced haven’t changed us,” Mahdi’s brother, Talal Abdul Fattah Mahdi, wrote in a social media post in Arabic, according to the News Laundry website. “Our demand is clear: retribution, and nothing else, no matter what.”
On Friday, India’s Supreme Court allowed Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council, a private organization trying to secure the release of Nimisha, to approach the Indian government for permission to travel to Yemen for negotiations to stall her execution. Indians are presently banned from visiting the war-torn country.
