The government is extending “all possible help” in the matter of the sentencing of Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya in Yemen and her family’s search for relevant options, the Ministry of External Affairs has said.
“We are aware of the sentencing of Ms Nimisha Priya in Yemen. We understand that the family of Ms Priya is exploring relevant options. The government is extending all possible help in the matter,” said Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson, MEA, in response to media queries on the case of Nimisha Priya’s death sentence on Tuesday.
The death sentence for Nimisha Priya, a nurse from Palakkad convicted of murdering a Yemeni citizen in 2018, was approved by Yemenese President Rashad Muhammed al-Alimi on Monday.
Nimisha’s mother is in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, to negotiate with the victim’s family to secure a pardon for her daughter by paying diyah or “blood money”. Sharia law, followed by Yemen, allows murder convicts a last option of escaping death by convincing the victim’s family to grant pardon in exchange of diyah.
With Yemen’s President approving Nimisha’s death sentence, time is running out for Nimisha’s family and supporters to secure pardon and talks have to be expedited. The negotiations had stalled earlier this year after a lawyer, appointed by the Indian Embassy, demanded a huge pre-negotiation fee.
Nimisha has a group of supporters who have been helping in the attempt to secure a pardon for her as she reportedly suffered a lot of abuse at the hands of the person she murdered and her attack was in self-defence.
