An Indian nurse who is in the death cell in the war -torn Yemen will be executed on July 16, campaigners who work to save her have told the BBC.
Nimisha Priya was sentenced to death for the murder of a local man – her former business partner Talal Abdo Mahdi – whose chopped body was discovered in a water tank in 2017.
The only way she can be saved is when Mahdi's family goes her grace. Her family members and supporters have offered $ 1 million (£ 735,000) as DIYah, or blood money, to be paid to the Mahdi family.
“We are still waiting for their grace or other requirements,” a member of the Save Nimisha Priya Council told the BBC.
“The implementation date was transferred by the director -general of the persecution to prison authorities. We are still trying to save her. But in the end the family must agree for grace,” said Babu John, social activist and member of the council.
An official in the Indian Ministry of External Affairs told BBC that they were still trying to confirm the details.
In 2008, Nimisha Priya had left the South Indian state Kerala for Yemen to work as a nurse.
She was arrested in 2017 after the body of Mahdi was discovered. The 34-year-old is currently being submitted in the central prison of Sanaa in the capital Yemen.
She was accused of killing Mahdi by giving him an “overdose of sedativa” and reportedly chopping his body.
Nimisha denied the allegations. In the court, her lawyer argued that Mahdi tortured her physically, picked all her money, grabbed her passport and even threatened her with a gun.
He said she had tried to anesthetize Mahdi only to pick up her passport from him, but that the dose was accidentally increased.
In 2020, a local court sentenced her to death. Her family challenged the decision in the Supreme Court of Jemen, but their profession was rejected in 2023.
At the beginning of January Mahdi Al-Mashat, president of the Supreme Political Council of the Rebel Houthis, approved her execution.
The Islamic judicial system of Yemen, known as Sharia, offers her a final spark of hope – securing a grace of the victim's family by paying blood money to them.
Nimisha's mother, a poor household helper from Kerala, has been in Yemen since April 2024 in a final attempt to save her.
She has nominated Samuel Jerome, a social worker established in Yemen, to negotiate with the Mahdi family.
A lobby group called Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council has raised money for this by Crowdfunding and Mr. Jerome said that $ 1 million was offered to the Mahdi family.
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