New Delhi: Iran is willing to do whatever it can on humanitarian grounds to aid in the case of Indian nurse Nimisha Priya, who is facing the death penalty in Yemen, a senior official from the West Asian country said Thursday.
“We will take up the issue of the nurse. She seems to have been charged with manslaughter. We will do whatever we can in this case on humanitarian grounds,” the official said when pressed on the case of Priya, who is imprisoned in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen which is controlled by the Iranian-backed Houthis.
On Monday, the President of Yemen, Rashad al-Alimi, reportedly approved the death penalty for Priya, who was convicted of murdering Talal Abdo Mahdi. Mahdi, a Yemeni citizen was dosed with sedatives and died from an overdose in 2017, by Priya, who was attempting to retrieve her passport to leave the country.
In a statement Tuesday, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had said that the government is “extending all possible help in the matter”. Priya was handed the death sentence in 2020, which the Supreme Court in Yemen upheld in November 2023. Her only options at the time were a presidential pardon or a pardon from the family after paying “blood money”.
Sana’a is currently under the control of the Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthi movement, which has a representative office in Tehran, Iran, and has been in touch with the Iranian government.
However, the senior Iranian official cautioned the notion that the Houthis solely follow Tehran’s lead when it comes to policy, highlighting that they offer advice when required, but it is up to them to make their own decisions.
Yemen has been in the midst of a civil war since 2014, when the Houthis captured Sana’a and quickly took over the levers of governance in the country. The internationally recognised government shifted its operation to the port of Aden, and has been functioning from there since.
Priya’s mother Premakumari was allowed by the Delhi High Court to travel to Yemen late last year to negotiate with Madhi’s family for the payment of blood money. Premakumari made it to Yemen in April 2024, along with Samuel Jerome, a member of the ‘Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council’.
On 24 April last year, Premakumari met with Priya after 11 years at a Yemeni prison in Sana’a, according to media reports. Indians have been restricted from travelling to the West Asian country since 2016 due to adverse political and security situations.
Negotiations over the payment of blood money hit a dead end in September, according to media reports. Mahdi’s family originally requested 50 million Yemeni Rials in compensation in 2022.
Worked in Yemen for over a decade
Originally from Kerala’s Palakkad district, Priya worked as a nurse in Yemen since 2008. Following her marriage with Tomy Thomas in 2011, the two of them continued working and living in Yemen, according to news reports.
In 2014, Thomas returned to India along with their daughter. Priya remained in Yemen and in 2015 started her own clinic. However, as per Yemeni law, she required a local citizen to partner with her in the business and she had reached out to Mahdi, whom both she and Thomas knew from earlier. She eventually started the business with her former boss Abdul Lateef.
In interviews with media outlets, Priya had said that Mahdi eventually added himself as a shareholder in the business and later created documentation to indicate that he was married to the Indian nurse. Thomas at the time was unable to return to Yemen, due to the restriction against Indians travelling to the country.
Priya alleged that eventually, Mahdi took her passport and tortured her. Without her passport the nurse could not return to India, which led to her dosing Mahdi with sedatives to retrieve the document. However, Mahdi overdosed and died during the attempt.
This report has been updated to correct the erroneous statement that Nimisha Priya’s case is being handled by the internationally recognised Yemeni government in Aden. The error is regretted.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: Maldivian oppn sought ‘$6 mn from India’ in bid to impeach president Muizzu, reports WaPo