Latest news with #SufiIslamic
The Print
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Print
Setback for efforts to save Nimisha Priya from execution in Yemen as victim's family refuses pardon
A native of Kerala's Palakkad district, Nimisha was convicted by a Yemeni court in 2017 for the murder of Yemeni national Talal Abdo Mahdi, her business partner in setting up a clinic in Sana'a in 2015. Originally scheduled 16 July, Nimisha's execution was stayed Tuesday following mediation efforts initiated by Kanthapuram A. P. Aboobacker Musliyar, the General Secretary of the All India Sunni Jamiyyathul Ulama and Chancellor of Jamia Markaz. The efforts were made through Yemeni Sufi Islamic scholar Sheikh Habib Umar bin Hafiz. Thiruvananthapuram: A day after making progress by securing a stay on the execution in Yemen, the fate of Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya continues to hang in the balance, as the victim's family remains reluctant to grant a pardon. However, the mediation process hit a roadblock again Wednesday, after the victim's brother expressed unwillingness to offer pardon. The discussion is continuing in Yemen on Thursday between the representatives of Sheikh Habib and the Mahdi's family. Abdelfattah Mahdi, the brother of Talal, said in a Facebook post that the discussions have not changed their stand on the matter. 'In any case, what comes after the execution date has been set is harder than what came before. We will follow through with the execution until it is carried out. No postponement will deter us, and no pressure will shake us. Blood cannot be bought… justice cannot be forgotten… and retribution will come, no matter how long the road, it's only a matter of time, and we seek help from God,' he wrote Wednesday in Arabic. According to Sharia law, a person convicted of murder in Yemen can be spared execution if all legal heirs of the victim agree to grant pardon, usually in exchange for 'diya' or blood money. Advocate Subhash Chandran K.R., a member of the Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council, confirmed to ThePrint that the talks can proceed only if all family members agree to pardon Nimisha. He said discussions on blood money have not begun due to the family's hesitation. Talal, according to the petition filed by the Council in the Supreme Court, allegedly began embezzling funds and torturing Nimisha soon after the clinic was established. He also seized her documents. Acting on the advice of a warden at a local prison where Mahdi had previously been jailed, Nimisha reportedly attempted to sedate him to recover her documents. He died of an overdose in the process. Nimisha had moved to Yemen in 2008 to work at a private hospital. Her husband and daughter returned to Kerala in 2014 due to financial constraints and visa issues that arose amid the ongoing civil war. (Edited by Tony Rai) Also Read: Will do whatever we can, says Iranian official on Nimisha Priya, nurse facing death sentence in Yemen
Mint
6 days ago
- Politics
- Mint
Nimisha Priya Case: How Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad intervened to defer Kerala nurse's execution in Yemen
Nimisha Priya Case: The execution of Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya, who has been on death row in Yemen since 2020, was deferred on July 15, a day before the scheduled date. This confirmation came a day after Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musliyar, the general secretary of the All India Sunni Jamiyyathul Ulama and chancellor of Jamia Markaz, initiated a new mediation effort through his long-time friend and Yemeni Sufi Islamic scholar Sheikh Habib Umar bin Hafiz. The 94-year-old Musliyar, who is officially known as Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad and is revered as 'Grand Mufti of India,' held talks with religious authorities in Yemen, who were in contact with the family of Talal Abdo Mahdi, the Yemeni national she allegedly killed in 2017. On Tuesday, Abubakr announced, a press statement, that the scheduled execution has been officially postponed following his humanitarian intervention. The statement detailed the series of diplomatic and religious efforts undertaken to halt the execution. The initiative began after he was approached last Friday by Chandy Oommen, the Congress MLA from seeking assistance in the Nimisha Priya execution case due to the cleric's longstanding ties with leading Sufi scholars in Yemen. "With a deep sense of national responsibility and humanitarian concern, I decided to act upon this request," the 'Grand Mufti' said in the statement. Given the limited diplomatic ties between India and Yemen, he chose to activate alternate channels of influence through spiritual and tribal leaders. One of the pivotal figures in the mediation process was Habib Umar bin Hafeez, a renowned Sufi scholar from Tarim, Yemen. Upon being contacted, Habib Umar promptly began mobilising his network and initiated high-level discussions with the deceased's family, legal experts, and Yemeni judicial authorities, according to the statement. 'An emergency meeting was recently convened in North Yemen under Habib Umar's guidance, bringing together key figures including senior government officials, the Chief Judge of the Criminal Court in Sanaa, the victim's family representatives, and tribal leaders. During these discussions, the victim's family signaled openness to further dialogue before finalizing their decision,' it read. Abubakr is based in Kerala, the home state of 37-year-old Nimisha Priya. He is a revered figure among Sunni Muslims in India and across South Asia. He is widely known as the 'Grand Mufti of India', though the title is not official. Further negotiations took place this morning in Dhamar, the home region of the deceased, involving tribal leaders and the victim's legal committee, the statement said. 'Notably, Justice Mohammed bin Ameen—a senior judge, Shura Council member, and relative of the deceased—joined the mediation at the request of Habib Umar and played a crucial role in persuading the family to formally request a stay of execution,' it said. The Yemeni Special Criminal Court issued an official order, signed by Judge Rizwan Ahmed Al-Wajri and Prosecutor Swari Mudeen Mufaddal, postponing the execution originally scheduled for July 16, 2025 until further notice. "This case has been deeply sensitive and emotionally complex within the tribal society of North Yemen," noted Sheikh Abubakr. 'Until recently, even establishing communication with the victim's family was impossible. The breakthrough in dialogue now offers renewed hope for a peaceful resolution.' Abubakr confirmed that all recent developments have been formally communicated to the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. The statement said this intervention marks a critical step toward clemency in a case that has drawn national and international attention and underscores the impact of religious diplomacy and cross-border humanitarian solidarity. According to sources quoted by news agencies, blood money negotiations have taken place, and the details were conveyed to the concerned parties in Kerala. "Islam has another law. If the murderer is sentenced to death, the family of the victim has the right to pardon. I don't know who this family is, but from a long distance, I contacted the responsible scholars in Yemen,' he told news agency ANI. 'I made them understand the issues. Islam is a religion that places a lot of importance on humanity.' Under Shariah law, as applied in Yemen, blood money is a legally recognised financial compensation paid to the family of a person who has been killed. It is a legally sanctioned alternative to capital punishment in Islamic jurisprudence. 'After I requested that they intervene and take action, the scholars (in Yemen) met, discussed, and stated that they would do what they could. They have officially informed us and sent a document stating that the date of execution has been postponed, which will help facilitate the ongoing discussions," he said. Nimisha Priya, hailing from Palakkad district in Kerala, was sentenced to death in 2020, and her final appeal was rejected in 2023. She is currently imprisoned in a jail in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen. Centre informed the Supreme Court that the government could do "nothing much" in the case of the nurse facing execution on July 16. Islam is a religion that places a lot of importance on humanity. Attorney General R Venkataramani informed a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta that the government was doing "utmost possible".
Mint
6 days ago
- Politics
- Mint
Nimisha Priya Case: This Congress MLA played a key role in halting Kerala nurse's execution in Yemen. Who is he?
Nimisha Priya Case: The execution of Nimisha Priya, the Kerala nurse on a death row in Yemen since 2020, was deferred on July 15, a day before the scheduled date. Prominent Muslim cleric Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musliyar, originally named Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad, is being hailed for initiating the mediation efforts through his long-time friend and Yemeni Sufi Islamic scholar Sheikh Habib Umar bin Hafiz. But who prompted Abubakar to intervene? Abubakr's office issued a formal statement on July 15 saying that the initiative began after the cleric was approached last Friday by Chandy Oommen, the Congress MLA from Puthuppally. Chandy sought the Grand Mufti's assistance due to his longstanding ties with leading Sufi scholars in Yemen, the statement said. "With a deep sense of national responsibility and humanitarian concern, I decided to act upon this request," the Grand Mufti said. Oommen had also approached several other influential figures, including Kerala Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, for intervention. "Beyond his role as a Governor, he acted as a fellow human being. His sincere efforts will never be forgotten by Kerala and its people. I thank him from the bottom of my heart," Oommen said after the execution was halted, adding that the Governor reached out to foreign governments, businessmen, and officials. "He did whatever he could," the Congress MLA said after the execution was deferred. Oommen, son of late Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, met Kerala Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar on Wednesday to seek urgent intervention in the case. Oommen was accompanied by his mother, Mariyamma Oommen, during the meeting at Raj Bhavan. The family has taken up the issue as a matter of moral responsibility, recalling that the late Oommen Chandy had personally advocated for Nimisha Priya's release in his final days. "Appa (father) gave this issue priority even amid his own health struggles. He spoke to everyone who visited him about intervening in Nimisha's case," Chandy Oommen said. 'We believe this is one of the responsibilities he entrusted to us. Now, with the date of execution approaching, we cannot remain silent,' he said in a Facebook post. Nimisha Priya, 38, a nurse from Palakkad district in Kerala, was convicted of murdering her Yemeni business partner in 2017. She was sentenced to death in 2020, and her final appeal was rejected in 2023. She is currently imprisoned in a jail in Sana'a, the capital of Yemen. Chandy Oommen, 39, is an Indian lawyer, lecturer, and Congress MLA who practices law at the Supreme Court of India since 2016. He is the incumbent Member of the Kerala Legislative Assembly representing the Puthuppally Assembly constituency since 2023. Chandy was the Chairman of the National Outreach Cell of the Indian Youth Congress. On September 9, 2024, the Government of India appointed Oommen as the Empanelled Advocate to represent the National Highways Authority of India in Courts in Kerala. Chandy Oommen was born on March 1 1986 in Puthuppally, Kottayam district of Kerala, India as the only son of former chief minister Oommen Chandy and Mariamma Oommen. Chandy completed his schooling at St Thomas Residential School, Thiruvananthapuram, and Loyola School, Thiruvananthapuram. He then went to Mar Ivanios College, Thiruvananthapuram, for a bachelor's degree in economics. He then pursued his bachelor's ( BA Hons) and master's (MA) degrees in history at St. Stephen's College, Delhi, where he was the president of the college students' union from 2006 to 2007. After completing his post-graduation, he went on to earn an LLB from Delhi University and an LLM in criminology from the National Law University, Delhi. Additionally, he completed a summer course at the London School of Economics. Subsequently, he obtained an additional LLM in constitutional law from Christ University, Bengaluru in 2016. With a deep sense of national responsibility and humanitarian concern, I decided to act upon this request. Chandy's father, Oommen Chandy, represented the Puthuppally Assembly constituency consecutively for 53 years. Puthuppally by-election was necessitated by the death of his father in July 2023. Chandy was selected as the candidate of the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF). Chandy won the by-poll with a record margin of 37,719 votes against Jaick C Thomas of the Left Democratic Front (LDF). It was the highest margin for any candidate in the history of the Puthuppally assembly election.
The Print
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Print
Day before her execution, a ray of hope for Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya in Yemen
'It's good news that they have stayed the order. And it gives us some breathing time to initiate negotiations,' Advocate Subhash Chandran K.R, a member of the Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council, told ThePrint. This comes a day after Kanthapuram A. P. Aboobacker Musliyar, the general secretary of the All India Sunni Jamiyyathul Ulama and chancellor of Jamia Markaz, initiated a new mediation effort through his long-time friend and Yemeni Sufi Islamic scholar Sheikh Habib Umar bin Hafiz. Thiruvananthapuram: The execution of Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya, who is on death row in Yemen since 2020, was postponed Tuesday, a day before the scheduled date. Subhash said the amount of blood money—monetary compensation offered to the family of a murdered person—and further proceedings will be decided in the upcoming days. Hailing from Kerala's Palakkad district, Priya was convicted of murdering Yemeni national Talal Abdo Mahdi in 2017. He was her partner in setting up a clinic in the Yemeni capital city of Sana'a in 2015. Mahdi began embezzling money and torturing Priya soon after the clinic was set up, according to the Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council. He also seized her passport and other documents. The nurse then attempted to sedate him in order to retrieve the documents, and he died of an overdose in the process, it has been alleged. The council was formed in September 2020 by a group of non-resident Keralites in different parts of India and abroad with the objective to ensure 'access of justice' to Priya and to raise funds through donations for paying blood money. Sana'a, where she is imprisoned, is under Houthi control, complicating the matter. The central government informed the Supreme Court Monday it cannot do anything further in the matter. 'There is nothing much the government can do. Looking at the sensitivity of Yemen, it's not diplomatically recognised. Blood money is a private negotiation,' Attorney General R. Venkataramani, representing the Centre, told the court. Reacting to the news of the execution being postponed, Thiruvananthapuram MP and former UN diplomat Shashi Tharoor said interventions have been taking place since 2020. 'Although India has an embassy in Yemen, due to the political and security situation in the country, the Indian embassy in Sana'a has been functioning temporarily from a camp office in Djibouti since April 2015. Because of this, our diplomatic efforts have so far not been successful,' he wrote on social media Tuesday. He also lauded Kanthapuram A. P. Aboobacker Musliyar's efforts. 'At a time like today, when efforts are being made to divide people in the name of religion and community and to spread hatred and animosity, the respected Kanthapuram Ustad is showing us that humanity is of the utmost importance,' Tharoor wrote. Also Read: Appeal rejected, Indian nurse on death row in Yemen has 2 options: President's pardon or 'blood money' The case and the family A trained nurse, Priya moved to Yemen in 2008 with her husband to work at a private hospital in Sana'a. After working for a few years, her husband and minor daughter returned to India in 2014 due to financial issues. They were unable to go back because of the civil war in Yemen and visa restrictions. At present, her husband works as an auto-rickshaw driver, and her 12-year-old daughter lives in a convent in their native place. In 2015, Priya joined hands with Mahdi to set up her own clinic in Sana'a, since Yemeni law mandates no clinic or businesses can be opened without a local partner. A petition filed by the council earlier this month in the Supreme Court, seeking the Centre's intervention to facilitate diplomatic negotiations with the victim's family, states that Mahdi accompanied Priya to Kerala in 2015 when she came on a month-long holiday. At that time, he stole a wedding photograph of Priya, which he later manipulated to claim he was married to her. The petition also alleges that Mahdi started cornering all the revenue after the clinic was set up. 'He became hostile when Nimisha questioned him about the embezzlement. He later threatened her, forged documents to claim that she was married to him as per his religion, and brutally tortured her,' the petition states. It further alleges that Mahdi manipulated ownership documents and took money from her monthly earnings, claiming she was his wife. Later, Mahdi seized her passport, physically tortured and threatened her at gunpoint on multiple occasions under the influence of drugs, the document states. The petition also states that Priya was put in jail for six days when she tried to complain against him. In July 2017, following advice from a warden of a jail near her clinic, where Mahdi had previously been imprisoned, Priya planned to sedate him to retrieve her documents. 'However, sedation did not affect Mr. Mahdi, who was a substance abuser. She tried sedating him again, using a stronger sedative to retrieve her passport, but he died within a few minutes due to a drug overdose,' it says. After her sentencing by a trial court in 2020, she filed appeals against the death penalty, which were dismissed both by the first appellate court and by the Supreme Judicial Council of Yemen. 'What we understood is that there was huge pressure from tribal groups on the family not to give her a pardon. That is why they weren't coming forward. Yesterday, Kanthapuram Musliyar's involvement made it easier to talk to the cleric,' the petition said. It added Priya was forced to sign confessional documents at the beginning, which complicated the case. 'She didn't know it was a confession. She didn't have anyone to help her, no lawyer to defend her. The political situation was also such that there was an ongoing civil war. She was forced to sign those.' (Edited by Ajeet Tiwari) Also Read: Will do whatever we can, says Iranian official on Nimisha Priya, nurse facing death sentence in Yemen
Khaleej Times
25-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Khaleej Times
'Music is a very emotional way to communicate quickly with people': 'Yo Yo Honey Singh: Famous' music supervisor Alick Sethi
The raw electronic sound that originated in clubs across the UK in the 90s had a way of sending energy pulsing through your body. You felt it in your muscles, you felt it in your bones — that need to thrum along, to tap your feet and move to the beat. Now, picture the same feeling but in response to the rhythmic clapping and free flowing notes of a qawwali, a form of Sufi Islamic devotional song that originated in India. Both bring you closer to something fundamental within you — a river of torrential emotion that ebbs and flows and will not be denied expression. The dichotomy of the two very different types of music eliciting a similar feeling was not lost on Alick Sethi, whose childhood soundtrack had heaps of both. In fact, somewhere along the way, while listening to qawwalis performed at his home in London as a child and devouring the 90s club scene in his teens and 20s, he trained his ear to match sound to emotion, to tell a story through a beat. The 51-year-old London-born British music supervisor exercised that same passion (and analytical genius) when he decided to work on Netflix documentary Y o Yo Honey Singh: Famous and gangster-drama Guns & Gulaabs. (Both series can be streamed on the platform.) 'When I was very young (three or four), I was at home in London, and every now and then, we had these musical evenings where people from the Indian community would come around with the harmonium and tabla, and they would start playing and singing qawwali music. I was fascinated by it. Of course, I was listening to music on the TV or the radio, whatever my parents had on, but this music hypnotised me because it was so long and kind of free form compared to what I heard on the radio, and everyone seemed to know what they were doing and singing, and when to sing and when not to sing and when to play and when not to play — I found it captivating. It's one of my early memories of music,' recalled Sethi. As he grew up, his tastes in music began to evolve; with exploration came the love for diverse genres, languages, and styles. 'I was looking for my identity, and I think I found it when I started going to university. I went to university in central London. I moved there, and I started to discover what came after the rave scene in the UK was this explosion of electronic music, and it seemed like new genres were springing up every year. It was a very amazing time because it was all new territory and uncharted,' he said. Living in London gave him an edge too, because as the UK's capital it drew talent like cheese draws mice. 'You could find the best DJs or the best electronic musicians playing in London every weekend or every week,' said Sethi. The experience would invariably be followed by a hunt for music on vinyl in little cellar record stores. But as a student, Sethi was constrained by budget (or rather, lack of). So he found a loophole; his university, Imperial College, had a radio station where he signed up and did a show, marking his beginning as a DJ that lasted till he was nearly 30. During the day, he would fiddle with test tubes and learn formulae, and in the evening, he would take to the decks; he still plays in clubs under the name Warped DJ. During his early DJing days, he found himself wondering about the music that was shown on TV. 'I realised one day that everything I saw on TV or in the movies had music. And I was wondering, how did that music get there, and who chose it, and how and why?' added Sethi. And the answer, he explained was Miami Vice. 'There was a legend that a TV executive was scribbling down ideas on a notepad, and he wrote MTV cops, and then left it at that, and wrote other ideas. And then someone saw that, and they developed this cop show where the cops that are undercover drive Ferraris because they have to pretend to be drug dealers and rich, and they have cool clothes, and it's all very styled, and then the music starts to play a part in that. Instead of just having chases and scenes with an orchestra or a composer making fast-paced music, they started to use songs from the era, songs that would become huge hits because of the show that we remember now. The songs made those scenes like mini pop videos — they became part of the story.' And so began his dance with the next phase of his life, one that would take him to places as far as Russia and India. Leap of fate Years later, he found his curiosity and subsequent learning paying off in the form of the Yo Yo Honey Singh project. He credits the director of the documentary, Mozez Singh, and the Academy Award-winning producer Guneet Monga with the creative vision behind the plan. Atypical to the Indian film industry, they took a leap of faith by hiring a music supervisor before even considering a composer. This gave Alick and Mozez the time and space to plan the musical universe for the story. 'Now I've worked on this Yo Yo Honey Singh documentary, and that was really interesting because it's unscripted, but it needed a music supervisor to license the songs and then also to help with the score, to put in ideas for the score, because we had a film director who was really collaborative and very sure of himself, secure in his vision in all aspects of production including music supervision. So, this was a real joy to work on.' In total, Sethi worked on negotiating and licensing 30 songs and 23 music videos, making it a gargantuan task in a country that he had not worked in too much and one that did not use music supervisors often. 'I worked for a long time in Russia,' he explained, 'And I think Russia grew into this whole licensing music and working with music supervisors thing more quickly. I think India has a very set way of working, and it's taking longer, but it's going in that direction, for sure,' mulled Sethi. In the Middle East, Sethi said, 'I know that all the big labels are opening offices in Dubai and Saudi ... and I think it's definitely needed. It's a hub, there's a lot of work, there's a lot of business, and there's a lot of communication that's needed. And of course, music is a very emotional way to communicate very quickly with people.' He explained that he's always on the lookout for places where he can engage with people. 'I think that's something that I feel is very prevalent in Dubai. That's something I would love to experience, coming from London and having had some of the happiest periods of my career in Moscow,' he said. For now though, he's just listening to music — the kind that plays on your mind long after you've seen the visuals on the screen. The kind that gets into your bones and causes your soles to itch to move to the beat. He is studying how to unlock the soundtrack of memories.
