The Center on Monday informed the Supreme Court that it had done all this to save Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya, which was facing possible execution in murder charges in Yemen on 16 July.
“There is nothing that the government can do … given the sensitivity of Yemen … It is not diplomatically recognized … There is a point as long as we can go to the Government of India. We have reached it. Yemen is not like any other part of the world. We are not publicly and wanted to complicate the situation, we are trying at a private level.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta was hearing a petition by Save Nimish Priya International Action Council, seeking court intervention to direct the Center to assist in talks through diplomatic channels. The petitioner’s counsel said that Priya’s family and supporters were interacting with the victim’s family on the “blood money” deal so that he could be forgiven under the Sharia law.
The lawyer said that Priya’s mother is in Yemen and the Action Council is requesting the intervention of the Center only to interact with the family, while blood money is arranged under Sharia law.
The Attorney-General said that “blood money is a personal conversation …”. He said, “There is no way to know what is really happening. We are trying our best.”
He said that the government had also reached an influential Sheikh in Yemen and requested the government prosecutor to suspend the execution, but not much was happening. He said, “We have received informal communication that execution will be kept in Abhay, but we do not know that it will work.”
Describing it as a sensitive case, Justice Mehta said that the way the incident happened is a matter of concern and if she loses her life then it is “very sad”.
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The lawyer said that “good samari is unable to help because it is Yemen. We are ready to pay high blood money to save it”.
The Attorney-General presented that this is not a case where the government can be asked to do something that it has already done. “It’s very unfortunate,” he said.
The court postponed the matter in the direction by 18 July that it should be made aware of the situation.
Death of Talal Abdo Mahdi
Nimish Priya, who lives from Palakkad in Kerala, was found guilty of killing Talal Abdo Mahdi in 2017. He was arrested trying to escape from Yemen and was sentenced to death in 2018.
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After becoming a worthy nurse, Priya moved to Yemen in 2008. In 2011, she married Tommy Thomas in Kerala, with whom she returned to Yemen. He worked as a nurse, while he worked as an electrician. However, both dreamed of starting their clinic. But under the Yemeni law, for this they needed to partner with a local.
The couple approached Mahdi, a regular in the clinic, where Priya worked as a nurse to help. Mahdi also came to Kerala in 2015 to participate in the baptism of Nimish Priya’s daughter. When Priya returned to Yemen, the civil war stopped her husband and daughter from chasing her. They live in Kerala.
In Yemen, Mahdi decided to take advantage of Priya. He opened a new clinic but refused to share his income with him. He also forged documents to allegedly show her as his wife. According to Priya’s family, it was followed by a cycle of physical and sexual abuse. Priya was unable to leave as Mahdi took all her travel documents and passports. He did not even allow him to talk to his family in Kerala.
One day, Priya, with the help of fellow nurse Hannan, allegedly tried to seduce Mahdi to bring back his papers. But an overdose caused his death. Panic, the pair decided to cut Mahdi’s body and dump it into a water tank. Both nurses were eventually arrested.
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