Indian nurse in Yemen's Houthi-held Sanaa faces execution for murder within a month

An Indian nurse condemned to death in Sanaa, Yemen's Houthi-held capital, is to be executed within a month, campaigners seeking to save her life have said.

Nimisha Priya, 33, a nurse from Palakkad district in Kerala state, was tried in Sanaa and convicted in 2020 of murdering and dismembering her Yemeni business partner Talal Abdu Mahadi three years earlier.

Her family was hoping to raise 40 million rupees ($519,000) to pay Mr Abdu Mahadi's family as blood money in exchange for her life, after the highest court in Sanaa rejected a plea to commute her sentence in November 2023, said Deepa Joseph, a lawyer in Delhi and vice president of Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council.

Ms Joseph told The National that Priya’s lawyer in Yemen was told about the execution warrant on Monday. “The order came last evening, and our lawyer got the information that the execution will happen within one month. We are trying to knock on the door that can open to save her,” Ms Joseph said.

Randhir Jaiswal, an Indian Foreign Ministry representative, said New Delhi was assisting Priya's family in their effort to save her life.

“We understand that the family of Priya is exploring relevant options. The government is extending all possible help in the matter,” Mr Jaiswal said in a statement on X.

The Indian government reportedly appointed a lawyer for Priya to file a revision plea before the Yemeni court in 2023. Her mother, Prema Kumari, has visited Sanaa twice to negotiate the blood money with the victim's family, Ms Joseph said.

Priya met Mr Abdu Mahadi in 2011 and set up a clinic in Sanaa three years later after forging documents to show that they were married, because Yemeni law bars foreigners from setting up clinics and medical companies, Ms Joseph said.

Priya and her husband, Tomi Thomas, had taken a loan of four million rupees to start the clinic but soon ran into a dispute with Mr Abdu Mahadi after accusing him of embezzling money, Ms Joseph said.

Her husband returned to India with their daughter, now seven, in late 2014. Priya was unable to follow them because of the civil war that broke out after the Houthi rebels seized Sanaa in September that year.

The Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council said Mr Abdu Mahadi responded to the allegations of embezzlement with threatening behaviour. He allegedly held Priya at gunpoint several times and also stole her jewellery.

He was arrested briefly after she complained to police, but continued to harass her and took her passport to prevent her from leaving Yemen, the group said.

Ms Joseph said Priya admitted to injecting Mr Abdu Mahadi with sedatives with the help of a Yemeni nurse, Hanan, but an overdose killed him. She had planned to get Mr Abdu Mahadi's thumb impression on a document to end the business deal, recover her passport and win her freedom.

Unable to find a place to hide the body, the nurses cut it into pieces that they put in plastic bags and dumped in a water tank at the clinic before fleeing Sanaa.

Police found the body parts after complaints of a smell from the water tank, leading to their arrest. Hanan was sentenced to life in jail for her role in Mr Abdu Mahadi's death.