Nimisha Priya Death Sentence Not Cancelled Yet: Indian Government

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has dismissed reports that the death sentence of Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya in Yemen has been revoked. The Centre clarified that there is no truth in the news circulating about her receiving relief from capital punishment.

Nimisha Priya, who hails from Kerala, was sentenced to death in Yemen for allegedly murdering her business partner. The sentence had earlier been postponed, but not cancelled.

A statement released by the office of Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musliyar, a prominent Sunni religious leader from Kerala, had claimed that Nimisha's death sentence was cancelled and that she was granted relief by the Houthi military authorities at a prison in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa.

However, the Indian government has clarified that no official confirmation has been received from the Yemeni authorities. The Ministry of External Affairs said it is not associated with such personal declarations and has yet to receive any formal communication about the cancellation of her sentence. The Hindu news website also published a detailed report on this development.

According to media sources, following a high-level meeting in Sanaa on Monday midnight—attended by officials from northern Yemen and international diplomats—Aboobacker Musliyar’s office claimed that Nimisha’s death penalty had been overturned. It was reported that, acting on a request from India’s Grand Mufti, Yemeni Sufi scholar Sheikh Habib Umar bin Hafiz appointed a team to negotiate with authorities. Meanwhile, Aboobacker Musliyar reportedly mediated both with the Yemeni government and international bodies.

This claim was also supported by Sarhan Shamshan Al-Vishwabi, a representative from Yemen's Action Council for Talal Mahdi’s Justice, who said the efforts of religious scholars led to the cancellation. However, with the Indian government now contradicting this, confusion prevails.

Sources suggest that a final official statement may only come after discussions with the family of Talal Mahdi—the Yemeni national who died. Nimisha’s execution, originally scheduled for July 16, was deferred after repeated requests by India, and since then, Indian officials have been negotiating with Yemen.

Background:

Nimisha Priya moved to Yemen in 2008 for financial reasons. After briefly returning to India in 2011 to marry, she had a daughter and later went back to Yemen. There, she partnered with a local man, Talal Abdo Mahdi, to open a clinic. In 2016, she accused Talal of harassing her and approached the police but received no help.

She allegedly drugged him to retrieve her passport and, due to an overdose, he died. She was caught while trying to dispose of the body in a water tank. She was convicted of murder and sentenced to death by a trial court in 2020, and the sentence was upheld by the Supreme Judicial Council in 2023.

Though her family’s appeals have managed to delay the execution, the death sentence officially remains in place.