Going to Yemen now is not logical, rethink decision, foreign affairs ministry denies permission to Nimisha Priya’s mother to go abroad

NEW DELHI: The union ministry of external affairs has written to the mother of Nimisha Priya, requesting her to rethink her family's decision to visit Yemen for the release of her daughter, who has been sentenced to death and jailed in Sanaa. Tanuj Shankar, director in the ministry of external affairs, handed over the letter to Nimisha Priya's mother, Prema Kumari. She was awarded death sentence for killing a Yemeni.

The letter stated that it is not logical to visit Yemen now and the government cannot arrange facilities there. The embassy has been shifted to Djibouti due to the internal situation in Yemen. There are presently no formal relations with the government in Sanaa. There are no diplomatic representatives there to help. However, the letter also mentioned that everything possible is being done in Nimisha Priya's case.

Nimisha Priya's mother Prema Kumari, daughter Michelle Tommy Thomas, Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council Treasurer Kunju Ahmed Naduvilakandi and core committee member Sajeev Kumar sought permission to go to Yemen to discuss blood money with the family of the Yemeni citizen killed. If the family of the Yemeni citizen killed, accepts blood money, the family hope that the sentence will be reduced. However, his family was not ready to accept blood money earlier.

The Supreme Court of Yemen had rejected Nimisha Priya's appeal against the death sentence. If the Yemeni president intervenes and if the family does not accept the blood money, the sentence may be commuted. In 2017, Nimisha Priya was sentenced to death in the case of killing Talal Abdo Mahdi, a Yemeni citizen, by injecting him with a sleeping pill while trying to get her passport back. Nimisha Priya, a native of Kollengode in Palakkad is presently in jail in Sanaa.