Execution of Indian nurse in Yemen: Govt is keen to save its citizen, Attorney General tells SC

The Union government assured the Supreme Court on Monday (July 14, 2025) that it is doing everything possible to save the life of Malayali nurse, Nimisha Priya, who is awaiting execution in a prison in Yemen for the murder of a local man.

Appearing before a Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta, Attorney General of India R. Venkataramani said the government is working relentlessly to stay the execution of the nurse.

Also read | Nimisha Priya a victim of transnational economic system: Medical workers in India seek return of nurse on death row in Yemen

The government was responding to a petition filed in the apex court by an organisation, ‘Nimishapriya – International Action Council’, represented by senior advocate Raghenth Basant and advocate Subhash Chandran KR, seeking the government’s intervention after reports surfaced that Ms. Nimisha Priya may be executed on July 16.

However, both the government and the petitioner informed the court that they had so far not received any official communication from the Yemeni authorities confirming the reports.

“The government is certainly keen to save one of its citizens. But they [Yemen] do not have a set of institutions where we could request them formally and they would listen to us. That is the whole problem,” Mr. Venkataramani submitted.

The Attorney General, noting that he had been extensively briefed on the issue by the Joint Secretary of Gulf Affairs, the Ministry of External Affairs, who had flown down, said a communication was even sent to the local prosecutor as late as yesterday to suspend the execution.

On a darker note, the top law officer said negotiation with the family of the victim seemed to be at “some kind of a standstill” for now. However, Mr. Venkataramani suggested there may be room for more negotiation and a possible solution if it was a question of giving more money to them.

Mr. Basant said the nurse’s family was alive on sheer hope. The organisation said the life of the nurse must not be extinguished for the lack of money. “We are willing to pay more blood money,” he conveyed the desperation of the nurse’s family.

The counsel clarified that the organisation and the family of the nurse was thankful to the Union Government. The case was not filed in the apex court on an adversarial note.

He said that considering the particularly challenging circusmtances in Yemen, the organisation and even good Samaritans were not getting access to negotiate for the life of the nurse. Mr. Bsaant said the purpose of the petition was only to see if the Union government could get hold of a “negotiating link”.

The senior counsel said the option to pay ‘blood money [diyah]’ to the murdered man’s family and be pardoned for the crime was still open. However, there has been no effective negotiations with the family owing to the civil war in Yemen and travel bans.

The court listed the case on July 18, and asked both the Centre and the petitioner-organisation to apprise it of any further developments.

Ms. Nimisha Priya is an Indian citizen and trained nurse who worked in private hospitals at Sa’ana in Yemen for a few years. Her husband and minor daughter had returned to India in 2014 owing to financial constraints ahead of the civil war.

The petition said that in 2015, Ms. Nimisha Priya had partnered with a local, Talal Abdo Mahdi, to set up her own clinic in Sana’a as only Yemeni nationals were allowed to set up clinics and business firms.

After she started the clinic, Mr. Mahadi started cornering all the revenue. He became hostile when Ms. Nimisha Priya questioned him. He had later threatened her, forged documents to claim that she was married to him as per his religion and brutally tortured her, the plea narrated..

Unable to cope with the torture, it said, Ms. Nimisha Priya had complained to the police in Sana’a. But instead of acting against Mr. Mahdi, the police arrested Ms. Nimisha Priya and put her in jail for six days. On her return from jail, the severity of the torture increased manifold.

In July 2017, Ms. Nimisha Priya took the help of a warden of a jail located near her clinic, who suggested that she should try to sedate him and then convince him to give her passport back. However, her attempt to sedate Mr. Mahdi boomeranged, and he died of an overdose in July 2017.

Ms. Nimisha Priya was sentenced to death in Yemen by a trial court in 2020. Her appeals were dismissed by the appellate courts of that country.

“Her only child, a 12-year-old girl, is living in a convent. Her mother is a domestic helper in Ernakulam and her husband is an autorickshaw driver,” the petition said.