Govt exhausted all means in nurse execution case: AG

The Union government on Monday expressed its inability to intervene immediately to stop the impending execution of Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya, who is scheduled to be hanged in Yemen on July 16 for the alleged murder of a Yemeni national in 2017.

- Utkarsh Anand

Submitting before the Supreme Court, attorney general R Venkataramani said that every possible diplomatic and private channel has been exhausted to seek a reprieve for the 38-year-old nurse from Kerala’s Palakkad, “nothing has worked so far,” and the situation may now lie beyond the Indian government's control.

“There is a point till which the Government of India can go. We have reached that,” said the AG, appearing before a bench of justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta. The court is hearing a plea filed by Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council, a citizens’ group seeking urgent government intervention. The court has posted the matter for July 18 to take stock of any further developments.

During the hearing, the AG told the court that India chose not to go public about its efforts to avoid worsening the situation, and that it had even reached out to an influential sheikh in Yemen to per- We got an informal communication that execution would be put in abeyance, but we don't know if it will work out

R VENKATARAMANI, Attorney general