Will do everything possible for release of Nimisha Priya, govt to inform SC

NEW DELHI: The government will inform the court on Monday that they will do everything possible for the release of Nimisha Priya, a Malayali nurse sentenced to death in Yemen. The government sources will inform the court when the Supreme Court considers her case today. Nimisha Priya is in a prison in the Yemeni capital Sanaa in a murder case. Wednesday is the date set for her execution. Action council lawyer K R Subhash Chandran filed the plea, seeking the intervention of the central government to freeze the order and release her.

The case is being considered by a bench led by Justice Vikramnath. The central government has filed a vakalath in the plea. The center is likely to inform the court in a sealed cover that it will do everything possible for her release.

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.