2 Days Before Indian Nurse's Execution In Yemen, Supreme Court Will Hear Case

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to urgently hear a petition to stay the execution of an Indian nurse from Kerala, Nimisha Priya, in Yemen. The top court today issued an advance notice to the Attorney General, seeking the Centre's reply on the organisation's plea and listed the matter on July 14.

An urgent mention was made by Senior Advocate R Basanth, who sought the top court's intervention against her execution, which is scheduled for July 16.

The matter was mentioned before a partial working days bench of Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Joymalya Bagchi, seeking urgent listing.

The Supreme Court was informed that, as per Sharia law, a person can be released if the relatives of the victims agree to accept "blood money", and negotiations can be held to explore that option.

The petition has been filed by "Save Nimisha Priya Action Council" seeking direction to the Centre to help negotiate her release through diplomatic channels.

However, Justice Dhulia asked why the person was sentenced to death. The counsel told the court that she is an Indian citizen from Kerala who went there for employment as a nurse, but a local person started torturing her, and he was later killed.

Nimisha Priya was sentenced to death for the murder of Yemeni national Talal Abdo Mahdi in the year 2017.

Nimisha is accused of sedating Mahdi to retrieve her passport that was in his possession. She had allegedly faced abuse and torture from him.

The "Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council" approached the high court in 2022, imploring the Centre to  "facilitate diplomatic interventions as well as negotiations with the family of the victim on behalf of Nimisha Priya to save her life by paying blood money in accordance with the law of the land in a time-bound manner".

However, the high court refused to issue an order to the Centre to negotiate the "blood money" to save Priya but asked it to pursue legal measures against her conviction.