Yemen court upholds death penalty of Kerala nurse

With an appeal court in Yemen on Monday upholding the death sentence of a Kerala nurse, her family and well-wishers in Kerala are now pinning hopes on diplomatic interventions.

Nimisha Priya, a native of Palakkad district in Kerala, is facing death sentence on charges of murdering a Yemen national Talal Abdu Mahdi after Mahdi allegedly cheated her.

Now the only options for Priya to get relief is to approach the supreme judicial council in Yemen with a mercy petition or to persuade the family of the deceased to accept blood money, a member of the action council formed to support her said. As her family is from a financially weak background, the action council made efforts to pool blood money of around Rs 70 lakh. The family of the victim, however, was not willing to accept it.

Resident vice-chairman of Kerala NRK welfare agency NORKA-Roots P Sreeramakrishnan said that the Centre could explore the option of persuading the family of the deceased to accept blood money.

CPI’s Rajya Sabha MP Binoy Viswam had earlier urged External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar that the Centre may use diplomatic channels to help her.

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