Wed Jan 01 05:12:43 UTC 2025: ## Indian Nurse Nimisha Priya Sentenced to Death in Yemen
**Sana’a, Yemen** – Nimisha Priya, an Indian nurse, has been sentenced to death in Yemen after the country’s President, Rashad al-Alimi, approved her execution. Priya was convicted of murdering Yemeni national Talal Abdo Mahdi.
Priya, a native of Kerala, India, had moved to Yemen in 2008 and worked as a nurse. She had been imprisoned since 2017. Her family had exhausted all appeals, including offering “blood money” – compensation to the victim’s family under Islamic law – to secure her release, but their efforts were unsuccessful. The Yemeni Supreme Court upheld the death sentence in 2023, affirming an earlier 2020 lower court ruling.
According to reports, Priya and Mahdi had a business relationship, initially working together to establish a clinic. However, Priya accused Mahdi of exploiting her, withholding earnings and even holding her documents. She claimed he physically and sexually abused her. Priya admitted to giving Mahdi a drug to incapacitate him, but the dosage proved fatal. She subsequently dismembered his body and disposed of it.
While Yemen’s legal system incorporates Islamic law, which allows for the possibility of pardons or commutation of sentences in exchange for blood money, Mahdi’s family refused the compensation offered by Priya’s family. Despite the family’s repeated appeals to both the victim’s family and the President for clemency, the death sentence remains. The case highlights the complexities of Yemeni law and the tragic consequences faced by Priya and her family.
First Piper 