Nimisha Priya case: Will appeal against death penalty, Centre tells HC

New Delhi, March 15, 2022

The Centre on Tuesday told the Delhi High Court that it will institute an appeal before the next appellate forum in Yemen challenging the death penalty awarded to Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya.

Nimisha was awarded the death sentence by a Yemeni Court in connection with the murder of a local citizen five years ago.

Advocate Anurag Ahluwalia, appearing on behalf of the Centre, informed a bench of Justice Yashwant Varma that the consul present in Yemen shall extend all cooperation and facilitate the travel of the petitioner.

Ahluwalia also said that the Centre is providing miscellaneous amounts to the Indian citizen for her daily expenses inside the foreign prison. On the blood money -- compensation paid by an offender or his kin to the family of the victim -- the Centre's counsel said it will only be facilitating the travel and will not involve in the negotiations.

Under the Shariat law, legal heir can be compensated and in turn, the death sentence can be commuted.

During the course of the hearing, advocate Subhash Chandran K. R. appeared for the petitioner organisation "Save Nimisha Priya-International Action Council" and said they are not asking for blood money but the intervention of the government due to the geo-political situation of the Western Asian country.

He also pointed out the issue of language barrier in a foreign land. The court requested the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to communicate to the concerned consulate to facilitate the travel of the petitioner as well as to provide help of interpreters if so required.

Hailing from Palakkad, Nimisha, a nurse by profession, reached Yemen in 2012 with her husband. In 2015, with the help of a Yemeni national Talal Mahdi, she set up a clinic. By that time, her husband and their child had returned home.

Soon, differences cropped up between her and Mahdi and she accused him of torturing her and taking away her passport, making her trip back to her home state impossible.

On July 25, 2017, she injected Talal with sedatives with the aim of sedating him and taking her passport back and fleeing. But things went awry and he collapsed for a while after she administered the sedative and succumbed later.

On March 7, a Yemen court dismissed Nimisha's appeal in the murder case in which she, along with another person, is the prime accused.

IANS