Tearful reunion: Premakumari meets daughter Nimisha for first time in 12 years

KOCHI: The prayers hummed for the last 12 years yielded results only on Wednesday as Premakumari successfully reached Yemen, saw and talked with her daughter Nimishapriya, who is serving a death sentence in the dark dungeons of the country.

Premakumari reached the prison in Sanaa at 10:30 am (Indian local time) along with Samuel Jerome; a man working in Yemen, who has been constantly fighting for Nimisha’s release and two other employees of the Indian embassy.

The jail authorities confiscated the phones of the four. The meeting was in a separate room. Seeing her daughter walk towards her filled tears into Premakumari’s eyes. Nimisha embraced her mother in one emotional scene and Premakumari stammered, failing to find words. The mother and daughter ate together the food provided by the embassy staff.

In 2017, Nimishipriya, a native of Palakkad, Kollengode, was sentenced to death in the case of the murder of Talal Abdu Mahdi, a citizen of Yemen. Efforts are being made to negotiate with the tribe of the Yemeni citizen for the release. If the family pardons her, Nimisha’s death sentence will be revoked.

In 2012, after marrying Tommy, a native of Thodupuzha, Nimishpriya went to Yemen as a nurse. The real misery crept into her life after she came to meet Talal Abdu Mahdi. Both of them decided to start a clinic and Nimisha handed over all her savings to Mahdi. She even returned with her family back to India to get more financial assistance. However, Nimisha returned to Yemen alone with her family left behind.

Talal Abdul Mahdi later tricked people into believing that Nimisha was his wife. A fake marriage certificate was created. A religious marriage was performed under threat and her passport was confiscated. Nimisha was also brutally beaten by Mahdi. It was while resisting the continuing threats of violence that the unfortunate incident happened.

Yemen's capital, Sana'a, which has been plagued by civil war, is now under the control of the Houthi rebels. The Indian Embassy in Yemen is now functioning in the neighbouring country of Djibouti.