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An Indian nurse who is on death row in war-torn Yemen is set to be executed on 16 July, campaigners working to save her have told the BBC.<\/p>\n
Nimisha Priya was sentenced to death for the murder of a local man – her former business partner Talal Abdo Mahdi – whose chopped-up body was discovered in a water tank in 2017.<\/p>\n
The only way she can be saved is if Mahdi’s family pardons her. Her relatives and supporters have offered $1m (\u00a3735,000) as diyah, or blood money, to be paid to Mahdi’s family.<\/p>\n
“We are still waiting for their pardon or any other demands,” a member of the Save Nimisha Priya Council told the BBC.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
“The execution date has been conveyed by the director general of prosecution to jail authorities . We are still trying to save her. But ultimately the family has to agree for pardon,” Babu John, social activist and member of the council said.<\/p>\n
An official in India’s ministry of external affairs told BBC that they were still trying to confirm the details. <\/p>\n
Nimisha Priya had left the southern Indian state of Kerala for Yemen in 2008 to work as a nurse. <\/p>\n
She was arrested in 2017 after Mahdi’s body was discovered. The 34-year-old is presently lodged in Sanaa central jail in the capital of Yemen.<\/p>\n
She was charged with killing Mahdi by giving him an “overdose of sedatives” and allegedly chopping up his body.<\/p>\n
Nimisha denied the allegations. In court, her lawyer argued that Mahdi physically tortured her, snatched all her money, seized her passport and even threatened her with a gun.<\/p>\n
He said she had tried to anaesthetise Mahdi just to retrieve her passport from him, but that the dose was accidentally increased.<\/p>\n
In 2020, a local court sentenced her to death. Her family challenged the decision in Yemen’s Supreme Court, but their appeal was rejected in 2023.<\/p>\n
In early January, Mahdi al-Mashat, president of the rebel Houthis’ Supreme Political Council, approved her execution.<\/p>\n
Yemen’s Islamic judicial system, known as Sharia, offer her one last ray of hope – securing a pardon from the victim’s family by paying blood money to them.<\/p>\n
Nimisha’s mother, a poor domestic helper from Kerala, has been in Yemen since April 2024 in a last-ditch effort to save her. <\/p>\n
She has nominated Samuel Jerome, a Yemen-based social worker, to negotiate with Mahdi’s family. <\/p>\n
A lobby group called Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council has been raising money by crowdfunding for the purpose and Mr Jerome has said that $1m has been offered to Mahdi’s family.<\/p>\n
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