The Supreme Court will hear a plea on Monday seeking urgent steps to save Nimisha Priya, an Indian nurse from Kerala, who is scheduled to be executed in Yemen on Tuesday, July 16, for the alleged murder of her Yemeni business partner, Talal Abdo Mahdi, in 2017.
Supreme Court To Hear Plea To Save Indian Nurse From Execution In Yemen
Nimisha Priya faces death on July 16, plea seeks blood money settlement to stop execution
The petition, filed by Advocate Subhash Chandran KR, urges the Indian government to use diplomatic channels and explore the option of paying "blood money" to the victim’s family. This is allowed under Sharia law in Yemen and could help secure a pardon. Priya’s family has reportedly offered $1 million (₹8.6 crore) as compensation.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta is expected to hear the matter. It was earlier listed for urgent mention on July 10.
Nimisha Priya, 38, hails from Kerala’s Palakkad district and moved to Yemen in 2011 to work as a nurse. Her husband and daughter returned to India in 2014 due to civil unrest, but she stayed on to support her family financially.
Under Yemeni law, foreign medical professionals must partner with a local to run a clinic. Priya entered a business partnership with Talal Abdo Mahdi. According to the plea, Mahdi allegedly forged documents to falsely show he was married to Priya, withheld her passport, and subjected her to physical abuse, financial exploitation, and repeated threats.
In 2017, Priya allegedly tried to sedate Mahdi to retrieve her passport and flee the country. However, the dose turned fatal, and Mahdi died. She is also accused of dismembering and disposing of his body.
She was sentenced to death in 2020, and Yemen’s Houthi-run Supreme Judicial Council upheld the verdict in 2023. Priya is currently imprisoned in Sana’a, under Houthi control. Since India has no formal diplomatic ties with the Houthi administration, efforts to intervene have been complicated.
Despite this, Indian officials are working behind the scenes to try and prevent her execution, with hopes pinned on the legal option of paying blood money and securing a pardon from Mahdi’s family.
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