Pardon by Yemeni national's family is only hope for Indian nurse Nimisha Priya: Activist

Priya, the activist, has been serving as a medical professional in the jail, helping her fellow inmates.

The President of Yemen last year approved the death sentence of Nimisha Priya.

Who is Nimisha Priya?

Nimisha Priya, who hails from Kerala, was found guilty of murdering a Yemeni national in 2017.

She moved to Yemen in 2008 to support her parents. After working in several hospitals, she eventually opened her clinic. She came in contact with Talal Abdo Mahdi in 2014 for her clinic, as rules in Yemen required partnership with a local to start a business.

She then had a fallout with Mahdi, and she filed a complaint against him after which he was arrested in 2016, but he was later released from jail and allegedly continued to threaten her.

Nimisha's family claimed that she had allegedly injected Mahdi with sedatives to retrieve her confiscated passport. However, an overdose led to his death. She was arrested while attempting to flee the country and was convicted of murder in 2018.

She is currently lodged at a prison in the Yemeni capital Sanaa.

The capital city is currently under the control of Iran-backed Houthis.

The Indian-origin nurse's family had been fighting for her release since then and had even approached Yemen's Supreme Court against the trial court order.

Sources in the Ministry of External Affairs told NDTV that they have been closely following the matter since then and have been in regular touch with local authorities and her family members, and have rendered all possible assistance.