Yemen: Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya's execution postponed

Sources told India Today news channel that her execution has been postponed, giving relief to her family.

The Centre on Monday said it has exhausted all its options to prevent the execution of Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya, who has been sentenced to death by Yemen for allegedly killing a Yemeni national, media reports said.

"It is unfortunate... there is a point till which we can go (and) we have reached that," Attorney General R Venkataramani told the Supreme Court as quoted by NDTV.

"There is not much the Government of India can do," the Attorney General told the court and added as quoted by the broadcaster, "We tried whatever was possible... we tried our best without going very public about it."

"It is unfortunate. But there is a limit to the functions of a government."

The counsel for the petitioner- Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council- told the court that now the execution, which will be carried out on July 16, can only be stopped if the Yemeni man's family accepts a financial compensation.

The family of the Yemeni man killed has been offered Rs. 8.5 crore.

The court asked the Attorney General whether the government can add its weight to the compensation money.

But the Attorney General said any financial compensation offered can only be a personal gesture, NDTV reported.

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.

Meanwhile, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene with the concerned authorities and "secure the release of Nimisha Priya".

"Wrote to Hon'ble PM Shri @narendramodi Ji urging urgent intervention to secure the release of Nimisha Priya, who remains imprisoned in Yemen. The Govt of Kerala stands firmly with all those working towards her exoneration and safe return," the Chief Minister wrote on X.