Release of Nimisha Priya; nothing more could be done, says Centre, sad if executed: SC

NEW DELHI: The Centre has informed the Supreme Court that it is doing everything possible for the release of Nimisha Priya, a Malayali nurse sentenced to death in Yemen. The Centre has clarified that nothing more can be done. The case was considered by a bench led by Justice Vikramnath. The case will be considered again on Friday. The Centre has informed that they are doing everything possible to avoid the death penalty and that there is a limit to its intervention in them accepting the blood money. The Supreme Court said that it will be sad if she is executed.

Nimisha Priya is in a prison in the Yemeni capital Sanaa in a murder case. The date for the execution is set for Wednesday. Action Council lawyer K R Subhash Chandran filed the plea seeking the intervention of the central government to freeze the order and release Nimisha Priya.

The death sentence is in the case of the murder of Talal Abdu Mahdi in July 2017. Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, which is in the midst of a civil war, is under the control of Houthi rebels. The Indian embassy is in neighboring Djibouti. Nimisha Priya went to Yemen as a nurse in 2012 after marrying Tommy of Thodupuzha. After meeting Talal Abdul Mahdi, the two decided to start a clinic as partners. She spent all her savings. Nimisha Priya, who had come home with her family to find more money, returned alone.

Talal had made others believe that Nimisha Priya was his wife. He concocted a fake marriage certificate. He also performed the marriage according to religious rituals after threatening her. He stole her passport and sold her gold. She was brutally harassed when she filed a complaint. Her statement was that Mahdi died when she defended him at a point when her life was in danger.