The execution of an Indian nurse convicted of murdering a Yemeni citizen has been postponed, according to her family and a social worker involved in her defence.
Nimisha Priya was scheduled to be executed in Sanaa on Wednesday. But a petition seeking a stay, filed last week by her mother Prema Kumari and Indian social worker Samuel Jerome Baskaran, has been accepted.
Ms Kumari and Mr Baskaran are in Yemen to support negotiations to save the life of Ms Priya, 34, from Kerala in southern India.
“I just hope God will save her and get her out of this. That’s all I can hope for,” Ms Kumari told The National from the Yemeni capital. “She will be happy to know of this postponement.”
After visiting her daughter in prison last month, Ms Kumari said "in front of me, she showed a brave front but she is very tense".
Mr Baskaran told The National he submitted a petition at the public prosecution office in Sanaa on Saturday, along with Ms Kumari, appealing for the execution to be postponed. They received news a day later that the request had been accepted and were given approval to make the order public today.
Mr Baskaran has earlier met the father and brothers of the victim, Talal Mahdi, to plead for forgiveness and make an offer of $1 million in diya, or blood money, as compensation for his death.
“A pardon is only possible from the family, so I had sought forgiveness from them,” he said. “The family has not consented to our offer. So we have to find a way forward, that is our only priority now. We are still hopeful.”
The order said the execution would be postponed “until further notice". Mr Baskaran said the Indian government had also sent a request to stay the sentence.
Final negotiations
India does not have an embassy in Yemen after it cut diplomatic ties following the outbreak of civil war in 2014, but New Delhi has provided legal representation and helped with the transfer of diya to lawyers in Sanaa.
Deepa Joseph, a lawyer in India and vice chairwoman of the Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council, expressed relief over the order. “We needed time and we knocked on every door,” she said. “We are relieved about the stay as it gives more time to talk to the family of the victim.”
Mediation by an Indian Muslim religious leader has also helped in the case. An intervention by Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musliyar, a prominent Sunni leader also known as the Grand Mufti of India, set up a line of communication with Mr Mahdi's family.
“He has spoken to religious scholars in Yemen,” said Chandy Oommen, a Kerala state legislator. “His connections with spiritual leaders there will play a crucial role in reaching the family to ask them for forgiveness for Nimisha. There is an effort from all sides to get a reprieve.”
Case against the nurse
The Indian nurse faces the death sentence over the murder of Mr Mahdi, who was her business partner, after police found his dismembered body in a water tank in 2017.
She has been in jail in Sanaa for the past eight years and her family's hopes hinge on Mr Mahdi’s relatives granting a pardon.
Under Sharia, the only way to halt an execution is an unconditional pardon by the victim’s family or an acceptance of blood money. That is usually paid to the heirs of the deceased by the party found responsible for causing the death.
Supporters of Ms Priya have been working for several years to gather funds and push for her execution to be abandoned. They raised $40,000 through crowdfunding and the money was sent in two instalments to lawyers in Yemen hired by the Indian government for Ms Priya’s defence.
The diya increased to $1 million this month after business leaders, prominent industrialists and the community in Kerala and overseas pitched in.
Ms Priya was 19 when she went to Yemen to work as a nurse in 2008, aiming to change her family's fortunes. Ms Priya worked as a nurse in a Sanaa government hospital before opening a clinic with Mr Mahdi.
During the trial in Yemen, her lawyer alleged she was physically and mentally abused by Mr Mahdi, who confiscated her passport, leaving her unable to travel to India to see her mother, husband and young daughter.
Her lawyer argued that she injected Mr Mahdi with sedatives so she could retrieve her passport, but this led to his death from an accidental overdose.
A court in Sanaa sentenced her death in 2020. An appeal from her family was rejected in 2023 by Yemen’s Supreme Judicial Council and her execution was approved in January this year.
More coverage from the Future Forum
It's up to you to go green
Nils El Accad, chief executive and owner of Organic Foods and Café, says going green is about “lifestyle and attitude” rather than a “money change”; people need to plan ahead to fill water bottles in advance and take their own bags to the supermarket, he says.
“People always want someone else to do the work; it doesn’t work like that,” he adds. “The first step: you have to consciously make that decision and change.”
When he gets a takeaway, says Mr El Accad, he takes his own glass jars instead of accepting disposable aluminium containers, paper napkins and plastic tubs, cutlery and bags from restaurants.
He also plants his own crops and herbs at home and at the Sheikh Zayed store, from basil and rosemary to beans, squashes and papayas. “If you’re going to water anything, better it be tomatoes and cucumbers, something edible, than grass,” he says.
“All this throwaway plastic - cups, bottles, forks - has to go first,” says Mr El Accad, who has banned all disposable straws, whether plastic or even paper, from the café chain.
One of the latest changes he has implemented at his stores is to offer refills of liquid laundry detergent, to save plastic. The two brands Organic Foods stocks, Organic Larder and Sonnett, are both “triple-certified - you could eat the product”.
The Organic Larder detergent will soon be delivered in 200-litre metal oil drums before being decanted into 20-litre containers in-store.
Customers can refill their bottles at least 30 times before they start to degrade, he says. Organic Larder costs Dh35.75 for one litre and Dh62 for 2.75 litres and refills will cost 15 to 20 per cent less, Mr El Accad says.
But while there are savings to be had, going green tends to come with upfront costs and extra work and planning. Are we ready to refill bottles rather than throw them away? “You have to change,” says Mr El Accad. “I can only make it available.”
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
'THE WORST THING YOU CAN EAT'
Trans fat is typically found in fried and baked goods, but you may be consuming more than you think.
Powdered coffee creamer, microwave popcorn and virtually anything processed with a crust is likely to contain it, as this guide from Mayo Clinic outlines:
Baked goods - Most cakes, cookies, pie crusts and crackers contain shortening, which is usually made from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. Ready-made frosting is another source of trans fat.
Snacks - Potato, corn and tortilla chips often contain trans fat. And while popcorn can be a healthy snack, many types of packaged or microwave popcorn use trans fat to help cook or flavour the popcorn.
Fried food - Foods that require deep frying — french fries, doughnuts and fried chicken — can contain trans fat from the oil used in the cooking process.
Refrigerator dough - Products such as canned biscuits and cinnamon rolls often contain trans fat, as do frozen pizza crusts.
Creamer and margarine - Nondairy coffee creamer and stick margarines also may contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.
Titanium Escrow profile
Started: December 2016
Founder: Ibrahim Kamalmaz
Based: UAE
Sector: Finance / legal
Size: 3 employees, pre-revenue
Stage: Early stage
Investors: Founder's friends and Family
Stree
Producer: Maddock Films, Jio Movies
Director: Amar Kaushik
Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, Aparshakti Khurana, Abhishek Banerjee
Rating: 3.5
Checks continue
A High Court judge issued an interim order on Friday suspending a decision by Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots to direct a stop to Brexit agri-food checks at Northern Ireland ports.
Mr Justice Colton said he was making the temporary direction until a judicial review of the minister's unilateral action this week to order a halt to port checks that are required under the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Civil servants have yet to implement the instruction, pending legal clarity on their obligations, and checks are continuing.
PRESIDENTS CUP
Draw for Presidents Cup fourball matches on Thursday (Internationals first mention). All times UAE:
02.32am (Thursday): Marc Leishman/Joaquin Niemann v Tiger Woods/Justin Thomas
02.47am (Thursday): Adam Hadwin/Im Sung-jae v Xander Schauffele/Patrick Cantlay
03.02am (Thursday): Adam Scott/An Byeong-hun v Bryson DeChambeau/Tony Finau
03.17am (Thursday): Hideki Matsuyama/CT Pan v Webb Simpson/Patrick Reed
03.32am (Thursday): Abraham Ancer/Louis Oosthuizen v Dustin Johnson/Gary Woodland
Traits of Chinese zodiac animals
Tiger:independent, successful, volatile
Rat:witty, creative, charming
Ox:diligent, perseverent, conservative
Rabbit:gracious, considerate, sensitive
Dragon:prosperous, brave, rash
Snake:calm, thoughtful, stubborn
Horse:faithful, energetic, carefree
Sheep:easy-going, peacemaker, curious
Monkey:family-orientated, clever, playful
Rooster:honest, confident, pompous
Dog:loyal, kind, perfectionist
Boar:loving, tolerant, indulgent
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
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Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Akeed
Based: Muscat
Launch year: 2018
Number of employees: 40
Sector: Online food delivery
Funding: Raised $3.2m since inception
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Who was Alfred Nobel?
The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.
- In his will he dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".
- Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.
- Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.
More from Aya Iskandarani
CREW
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