Shifting bases to a different country for better work and lifestyle opportunities is not unheard of. However, what is one supposed to do if this path to a better tomorrow turns into a nightmare? A similar incident occurred with a nurse from Kerala, India, after she found herself on Yemen’s death row for an alleged murder. The 37-year-old’s future currently hangs in the hands of the Yemeni legal system and the Indian Foreign Ministry.
Nimisha Priya is an Indian nurse from Kollengode, Palakkad District, Kerala. An ordinary woman who became the face of every headline after she was faced with execution in Yemen. According to reports, the nurse has been convicted of murdering a Yemeni national in 2017. However, her execution was postponed and later turned over completely. As the world awaits the final verdict, let us bring you up to speed on what has happened.
Who is Nimisha Priya, and how did she end up on Yemen’s death row?
Nimisha Priya moved bases from Kerala, India, to Yemen in 2011. However, she was accused of murder a few years later and was later convicted of the same. The case further got complicated by geopolitical and legal challenges, with Indian diplomats unable to find a breakthrough. While the case drew urgent diplomatic attention from New Delhi, there have only been delays given the circumstances.
For the unversed, the 37-year-old had gone to Yemen for work. However, she ended up in a prison in the capital city, Sanaa, which is under the control of the Iran-backed Houthi administration, making it even more difficult for the Indian diplomats to reach them, as India has no formal diplomatic ties with the Houthi administration.
Nimisha Priya was trapped in an abusive partnership
Nimisha Priya moved to Yemen in 2011 with her husband and daughter. She worked as a nurse in Sanaa. However, her family had to return to India in 2014 due to financial and civil unrest in the region. While Priya stayed back to support the family, her life was soon completely changed. She partnered with a Yemeni national, Tala Abdo Mahdi, to open a clinic in Yemen, as it was a legal requirement for foreign medical practitioners to do so.
However, according to Nimisha Priya, Tala forged documents claiming that they were married and subjected her to years of physical abuse, financial exploitation, and threats. She revealed that Tala had withheld her passport and used drugs to control her. While she tried to approach the local authorities with complaints of abuse, she was arrested instead of being given protection.
Nimisha Priya accused of Tala Abdo Mahdi’s murder
Things changed for Nimisha Priya after Tala Abdo Mahdi was murdered in 2017. For the unversed, Priya had allegedly attempted to sedate Tala, intending to recover her passport and flee Yemen. However, the sedative’s dose turned lethal, resulting in the man’s demise. Scared of what had happened, she dismembered the body and disposed of it in a water tank with the help of a local woman, Hanan. Priya was sentenced to death in 2020, and the Houthis’ Supreme Judicial Council upheld the punishment in November 2023.
Indian diplomatic efforts to help Nimisha Priya
The Indian government has been closely monitoring Nimisha Priya’s case. However, given the lack of cooperation between Indian and Houthi diplomatic channels, the negotiations have been difficult to make. Priya’s mother, Premakumari, also travelled to Yemen in 2024, in an attempt to persuade the administration to release her daughter. Indian authorities also explored the possibility of a ‘diyat’. For the unversed, diyat is also known as blood money. It is a payment to the victim’s family, which is permitted under Yemeni law. However, given the relations between the two administrations, there has been a delay in coming to a final verdict.
Nimisha Priya’s death sentence was waived
Nimisha Priya was scheduled to be executed on July 16, 2025. However, a last-minute effort changed her fate. The case triggered several appeals from human rights groups and citizen-led campaigns, urging the Indian government and international agencies to intervene urgently. This resulted in Priya’s sentencing being postponed. However, it was in the late hours on July 28, 2025, that Sunni leader, Kanthapuram A.P. Aboobacker Musliar, claimed that the death sentence had been revoked by the Houthi militia.
According to Kanthapuram’s office, a team of Yemeni scholars appointed by Sheikh Habib Omer bin Hafiz, at the request of the Sunni leader, worked alongside international diplomats to mediate an agreement, resulting in the decision to revoke Nimisha Priya’s execution. The reports were further confirmed by Sarhan Shamsan Al Wiswabi (a Yemeni activist and spokesperson for the Action Council for Talal Mahdi’s Justice). Wiswabi, in a Facebook post, claimed that due to the strong intervention of religious scholars, the death sentence has been waived.
Sarhan Shamsan Al Wiswabi added that it would now be either release from prison upon payment of diyat or life imprisonment for Nimisha Priya. However, Indian official sources have refused to confirm or deny the claims so far, stating that the victim’s family had not reached a consensus on pardoning Nimisha Priya.
As Nimisha Priya’s case evolves into a domestic political battle, her fate remains uncertain. What are your thoughts on her case? Let us know.
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