Fate of Nimisha Priya hangs in balance

Uncertainty over Kerala nurse as efforts to contact family of Yemeni national to offer blood money yet to succeed

- JAYANTH JACOB @ New Delhi

THE fate of Nimisha Priya, a nurse from Kerala who is on death row in Yemen, remains uncertain as efforts to contact the family of the Yemeni national she is accused of murdering, in order to offer blood money, have not yet been successful.

With Yemen's President Rashad al-Alimi approving the death sentence for the 37-year-old, the only hope for her family lies in securing a pardon from the family of Talal Abdo Mehdi, the Yemeni citizen she was convicted of murdering.

"We have been reaching out to various tribal leaders and other significant local people to get through to the family. So far, we have sent them about 40,000 USD in two installments through a lawyer there. However, we are unable to communicate with the family," Subhash Chandran, Nimisha's lawyer told this newspaper.

The lack of a full-fledged Indian diplomatic mission or active diaspora organisations in the strife-torn Yemen has made it challenging to intensify efforts for her release, the lawyer said.

Priya, who hails from Kollengode in Kerala's Palakkad district, has been imprisoned in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, since 2017 on charges of murdering a Yemeni national.