"Unfortunate, but there is a limit to what we can do," says Centre on nurse execution case in Yemen

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, July 14, 2025: India can’t do much more to stop the execution of Nimisha Priya - the Kerala nurse sentenced to death by Yemen for killing a man harassing her - the Supreme Court was told Monday. "It is unfortunate... there is a point till which we can go. We have reached it," Attorney General R Venkataramani said.

The counsel for the ’Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council’ seemed at a loss too; they told Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta this afternoon, "The only way is if the family (of the Yemeni man) agrees to accept the ’blood money’ (i.e., financial compensation)."

The Yemeni man’s family has been offered $1 million, or Rs 8.5 crore, but this has not been accepted so far. The Attorney Genera said the family had refused the money "as it is a question of honour".

Ms Priya is scheduled to be executed July 16, i.e., Wednesday.

Earlier today the Attorney General told the court the government had done everything it could in what is "a very complex case". "There is not much the Government of India can do," he said.

"We tried whatever was possible... we tried our best without going very public about it. It is unfortunate. But there is a limit to the functions of a government," he told the court.

The court asked the Attorney General if the Indian government could add its weight to the ’blood money’ offer, i.e., negotiate a settlement with the family of the man who was killed, but a rueful Attorney General said any financial compensation offered can only be a personal gesture.

In response to the petitioner asking for "someone from the government to go and talk to the family... to accept the ’blood money’" - which they offered to increase too - the Attorney General replied, "There is a point till wich the Government of India can go... we have reached it."

The federal government said that as part of its efforts to stop Ms Priya’s execution it had spoken to the public prosecutor involved and "got involved with a Sheikh (who is) influential there".

"But it has not worked. Nothing matters to the Yemen government. We even got informal communication her execution would be put on hold... but we don’t know if it will work out. This is not an area where the government can be asked to do something beyond a defined limit."

"They (the petitioners) say ’blood money’ has been arranged," Justice Mehta said, to which the Attorney General replied, "But they (the Yemen man’s family) said it is question of honour. We don’t know if this will change with more money. But, as of now, standstill."

Nimisha Priya Case

Ms Priya moved to Yemen in 2008 in search of a more lucrative job to support her parents.

After working in several hospitals she started her own clinic, and to comply with Yemeni laws, took on a local business partner, 37-year-old Talal Abdo Mehdi.

However, Mr Mehdi constantly harassed her and, according to Ms Priya, stole money from her. He also seized her passport, meaning she couldn’t even leave the country to escape him.

In 2017 Ms Priya injected him with a sedative she hoped would incapacitate him long enough for her to recover the passport. However, Mehdi died and she was arrested trying to flee Yemen.

Under Yemeni law ’blood money’ is the main punishment for unintentional killing. Also called ’diya’, its acceptance means the waiver of the right to ’qisas’, i.e., the ’eye for an eye’ principle.

This ’pardon’ can be accepted at any time before the execution.

Babu John, an activist leading efforts on behalf of Ms Priya, told NDTV the Indian government had appointed a Yemeni lawyer to represent her in courts there, but that all the petitions were dismissed.

The conviction, he said, had been upheld by that country’s Supreme Judicial Council in November 2023 and the President of Yemen had approved the death sentence.