Nimisha Priya: The last hope of an Indian nurse on death row in Yemen

Family members of an Indian nurse on death row in war-torn Yemen say they are pinning their hopes on a last-ditch effort to save her.

34-year-old Nimisha Priya sentenced to death for the murder of a local man – her former business partner, Talal Abdo Mahdi – whose mutilated body was discovered in a water tank in 2017.

She is being held in the central prison in the capital, Sana’a, and will soon be executed, and Mahdi al-Mashat, president of the Houthi rebels’ Supreme Political Council, approved her execution this week.

Under the Islamic judicial system known as Sharia, the only way to stop the death penalty now is to obtain a pardon from the victim’s family. For months, Nimisha’s relatives and supporters have been trying to do so by collecting diya, or blood money, to be paid to the Mahdi’s family, and negotiations are underway.

But with time running out, supporters say their hopes are pinned entirely on the family’s decision.

With the presidential sanction, prosecutors will again seek consent from Mahdi’s family and ask if they have any objections to the death penalty, said Samuel Jerome, a Yemeni social worker who has power of attorney on Nimisha’s behalf. mother

“If they say they don’t want to and can’t pardon her, the sentence will be stopped immediately,” he said.

“Forgiveness is the first step. Only then will it be decided whether the family will accept the blood money.”

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

Subhash Chandran, a lawyer who has previously represented Nimishi’s family in India, told the BBC that the family had already raised $40,000 (£32,268) for the victim’s family. The money was given in two tranches to lawyers hired by the Indian government to negotiate the case (the delay in sending the second tranche affected the negotiations, Mr. Jerome says).

“Now we need to explore the possibilities to discuss with the (victim’s) family, which is only possible with the support of the Indian government,” Mr Chandran said.

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

Her family is worried, but also hopeful.

“Nimisha doesn’t know what goes on behind the prison gates,” said her husband, Tony Thomas, who spoke to her in the hours before the death sentence was approved. “All she wants to know is if our daughter is okay.”

Nimisha’s mother is now in Sanaa, having traveled there last year after her trial in India allowed she will go to the region controlled by the Houthi rebels. Since then, she has met her daughter twice in prison.

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

On the second occasion, Ms. Kumari was accompanied by two nuns who prayed for her daughter in prison.

Nimisha was barely 19 when she went to Yemen.

The daughter of a low-wage domestic worker, she wanted to change her family’s financial situation and worked as a nurse at a public hospital in Sana’a for several years.

In 2011, she returned home to the southern Indian city of Kochi and married Mr. Thomas, a tuk-tuk driver.

Soon after, the couple moved to Yemen together. But financial difficulties forced Mr Thomas to return to India with their young daughter.

Tired of low-paying hospital work, Nimisha decided to open her own clinic in Yemen.

Since the local law required a local partner, she opened the clinic with Mahdi, a shop owner.

At first they were on good terms – when Nimisha briefly visited India for her daughter’s baptism, Mahdi accompanied her.

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

But Mahdi’s attitude, Mr Thomas argued, “suddenly changed” when Yemen’s civil war broke out in 2014.

At the time, Nimisha was trying to get the paperwork done so that her husband and daughter could rejoin her.

But after the war broke out, the Indian government banned all travel to Yemen, making it impossible for them to travel with her.

In the coming days, thousands of Indians were evacuated from the country, but Nimisha decided to stay because she took huge loans to open her clinic.

Around then, Nimisha began complaining about Mahdi’s behavior, including allegations of physical torture, Mr. Thomas said.

The lawsuit, filed by a group called the Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council, alleged that Mahdi stole all her money, took her passport and even threatened her with a gun.

After Mahdi’s body was discovered in 2017, police accused Nimisha of murder by “sedating” him and allegedly dismembering his body.

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

In 2020, a local court sentenced Nimisha to death. Three years later, in 2023, her family challenged the decision in Yemen’s Supreme Court, but their appeal was rejected.

Despite so many twists and turns, the family does not want to lose hope.

“My heart says we can come to an agreement and save Nimisha’s life,” Mr Thomas said.

Most of all, he said, he worries about their daughter, now 13, who “never felt a mother’s love.”

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

“She needs her mother. What will she do without her?”

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