Hope, Anguish, Denial—Nimisha Priya’s Husband Battles It All As ‘Execution Date’ Circulates

Television channels and social media platforms are overflowing with news of Nimisha Priya, the 37-year-old Indian nurse on death row in Yemen—but in Thiruvananthapuram, her husband Tony Thomas believes this execution will never happen. You cannot blame him for holding on to hope.

After all, reports of Nimisha’s imminent execution have done the rounds for days, and now say it is less than a week away—what else can he do but try, and hope?

But as Thomas rushes from meeting political leaders to government officials to plead and strategise a way to save Nimisha, time is running out—for him, and for her. According to some media reports, authorities have fixed July 16 to carry out the verdict of the Yemeni Supreme Council, condemning her to death for murder.

“Earlier reports of Nimisha’s execution were also proved wrong, and since we have not received any information about an execution, I would believe that the stories circulating are incorrect. We are trying our level best to avert the death sentence. I am running from pillar to post—I still believe we will be reunited,” Thomas told Outlook.

But relatives and friends of Nimisha are gripped with anxiety. They were expecting a reprieve, and when they heard the news about the date of execution being set, it shattered them although they knew it was unconfirmed.

On Thursday, a ‘Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council’ moved the Supreme Court of India, seeking the Ministry of External Affairs’s intervention to save the Indian citizen—India has only rarely given woman the capital sentence. The court will take up the matter on July 14, just two days before the apparent 16 July deadline, and it will doubtlessly keep Nimisha’s loved ones on tenterhooks until then.

Speaking to Outlook, advocate Subhash Chandran, who filed the writ petition in the Supreme Court on behalf of the Action Council, said all possible avenues to connect with authorities in Yemen are being followed. “None of us have official confirmation of the execution, we want the union government to take up the matter seriously. We are seeking the help of international human rights groups with connections in Yemen,” he said.

Chandy Oommen, the MLA representing Puthuppally in the Kerala Assembly, on Wednesday met state Governor Rajendra Arlekar, asking him to intervene in the matter. He told Outlook after the meeting that all possible ways are being explored and that the Governor has taken the matter up seriously and will speak to the Ministry of External Affairs. “However,” he said, “The political situation in Yemen is a spoilsport.”

Nimisha Priya, a native of Poonkayam village in the Palakkad district of Kerala, went to Yemen with her husband Tony Thomas shortly after their marriage in 2008. They soon had a daughter, Michele. After civil war broke out in Yemen in 2014, Tony and Michele returned home, Nimisha stayed on.

Until 2015, Nimisha worked with private hospitals, safe and secure despite the difficult political situation. Trouble began when she decided to establish a clinic with the assistance of a Yemeni national, Talal Abdo Mehdi. According to the couple’s family, Mehdi “hoodwinked” Nimisha and seized her passport and subjected her to extreme torture. They allege Mehdi siphoned funds from the clinic. Nimisha, in a desperate bid to retrieve her documents, injected Mehdi with sedatives—and died. Nimisha was arrested and sentenced to death by a court in Sana’a. The sentence was upheld in 2023 by the country’s Supreme Council.

However, under Sharia law, the death penalty can be averted by paying “blood money” to the victim’s family. According to advocate Chandran, her family wishes to negotiate with the victim’s family, but the volatile political situation in Yemen has hampered their efforts.

Nimisha’s mother, Premakumari, travelled to Yemen after a recent Delhi High Court direction relaxing the bar on Indians from visiting Yemen. She is still in Yemen, hoping, like Thomas, that her daughter will get a reprieve.

In recent years, crowdfunding was used to save a man from the gallows in Saudi Arabia. An astounding Rs 34 crore were raised to avert his sentence. Abdul Rahim from Kozhikode has been languishing in a Saudi jail for 18 years, allegedly for killing a minor. His sentence was commuted after the blood money was handed to the victim’s relatives in 2024.

People trying to save Nimisha hope to collect blood money through crowdfunding once they can contact the deceased Mehdi’s family.

Nimisha is not the only one facing the death sentence in a foreign country. According to the Ministry of External Affairs, 49 Indian nationals are in the same position in different countries. In a written reply to Rajya Sabha on March 20, 2025, Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh provided numerous details: 25 Indians face the death sentence in the United Arab Emirates, 11 in Saudi Arabia, three in Kuwait. Last year, three Indians were executed in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. In 2023, five Indians were executed in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.