Indian nurse on death row in Yemen given stay of execution
A petition filed last week by Prema Kumari, Ms Priya's mother, and an Indian social worker currently in Yemen seeking to prevent the execution of the 34-year-old nurse from India's southern Kerala state on July 16 has been accepted.
'We got confirmation about the stay today,' Deepa Joseph, a lawyer in India and vice-chairwoman of the Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council, told The National.
'We knocked on every door because we needed time. The application for a stay of execution was filed three days ago. We are relieved as it gives more time to talk to the family of the victim.'
No details were available on a new date for execution. The family of the Yemeni victim has yet to respond to the offer of $1 million as diya, or blood money, from Ms Priya's mediators, Ms Joseph said.
Indian media also reported on Tuesday that Ms Priya's execution had been delayed based on information from government sources.
Final negotiations
The Indian nurse faces the death sentence over the murder of Talal Mahdi, a Yemeni citizen and her business partner, after police found his dismembered body in a water tank in 2017.
She has been in jail in Sanaa for the past eight years and the hopes of her family hinge on Mr Mahdi's relatives granting a pardon.
'There is only one solution for Nimisha and that is for a pardon from the family,' Ms Joseph said. 'We are happy with this stay, as now we can continue talks and go through all procedures to approach the family members.'
Under Sharia, the only way to halt an execution is an unconditional pardon by the victim's family or an acceptance of blood money. Diya is usually paid to the heirs of the deceased by the party found responsible for causing the death.
Supporters of Ms Priya have been working for several years to mobilise funds and public opinion to commute her death sentence.
They had earlier raised $40,000 through crowdfunding and the money was split in two instalments and sent to lawyers in Yemen hired by the Indian government for Ms Priya's defence.
The blood money was raised to $1 million this month after business leaders, prominent industrialists, the community in Kerala and overseas, including the UAE, pitched in.
Ms Priya was 19 when she went to Yemen to work as a nurse in 2008. During the trial in Yemen, her lawyer alleged she was physically and mentally abused by Mr Mahdi, who was said to have confiscated her passport, leaving her unable to travel to India to meet her mother, husband and young daughter.
Her lawyer argued that she had injected Mr Mahdi with sedatives so she could retrieve her passport but this led to his death from an accidental overdose.
A court in Sanaa sentenced her death in 2020, her family's appeal was rejected in 2023 by Yemen's Supreme Judicial Council and her execution was approved in January this year.
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