Eranakulam: The President of Yemen, Rashad Al-Alimi, on Monday approved the death sentence of jailed Malayali nurse Nimisha Priya, who was convicted of murder in the country. The execution is anticipated to be carried out within a month.
Nimisha Priya, a native of Kollangode, Palakkad, was sentenced to death in a 2017 case for the murder of a Yemeni citizen named Talal Abdu Mehdi.
Nimisha came to Yemen as a nurse in 2012. Thereafter, she, along with Talal, started a clinic there in 2015. Despite not knowing Nimisha, he tried to take half of the monthly income as a shareholder of the clinic. Later, he told many people that he was her husband.
Subsequently, it became an issue of concern. Later, Talal allegedly began to physically assault her and forced her to have physical relations with his friends. It is suspected to be the reason Nimisha killed Talal by injecting drugs in July 2017.
Nimisha's argument is that she did not intend to kill him, and the aim was to recover the passport that Talal had. Her mother, Premakumari, had travelled to Yemen to meet the family of the Yemeni citizen and to secure Nimisha's release.
However, the Yemeni Supreme Court upheld the trial court's verdict in the case and also dismissed the plea for a commutation of the sentence.
Last September, the lawyer appointed by the Indian Embassy, Abdullah Ameer, demanded the second instalment of the pre-negotiation fee of Rs 16.60 lakh be paid immediately to start the negotiations. The release efforts stalled when he was informed that the negotiations would only begin after this amount was transferred.
The first instalment of $19,871 was handed over to the lawyer through the Indian Ministry of External Affairs on July 4. The lawyer had initially stated that a total of $40,000 was required to start negotiations and that this should be paid in two instalments.
The lawyer's stance is that a total of 40,000 US dollars is required to start negotiations and that this should be given in two instalments, as was clearly stated at the beginning.
