The execution of Indian nurse Nimisha Priya set for Wednesday in Sanaa for the murder of a Yemeni citizen has been stayed, according to her family and a social worker involved in her defence.
A petition filed last week by Prema Kumari, Ms Priya’s mother, and Indian social worker Samuel Jerome Baskaran, seeking to stay the July 16 execution of the 34-year-old nurse from Kerala in southern India has been accepted. Both Ms Kumari and Mr Baskaran are in Yemen to support negotiations.
“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 Sanaa. “She will be happy to know of this postponement.”
Describing her daughter’s mental state when she met her 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 a stay of Wednesday’s scheduled execution. They received news of the postponement the next day and were given the go-ahead to make the stay order public today.
Mr Baskaran has earlier met the father and brothers of the Yemeni victim Talal Mahdi to plead for forgiveness and place an offer of $1million diya or blood money as compensation for his death.
“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 stay does not specify a time period and the order says it was “until further notice.”
Mr Baskaran said the Indian government had also sent a request to stay the execution.
Final negotiations
India does not have an embassy in Yemen after it cut diplomatic ties since the outbreak of civil war in 2014 but has provided legal representation and helped with the transfer of dia money to lawyers in Sanaa.
Deepa Joseph, a lawyer in India and vice-chairwoman of the Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council, too expressed relief over the stay.
“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.
An intervention by Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musliyar, a prominent Sunni leader also known as the Grand Mufti of India, made it possible to reach Mr Mahdi's family.
“He has spoken to religious scholars in Yemen. His connections with spiritual leaders there will play a crucial role in reaching the family to ask them for forgiveness for Nimisha,” said Chandy Oommen, a Kerala state legislator. “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 Talal Mahdi, also her business partner, after police found his dismembered body in a water tank in 2017.
She has been in jail in Sanaa for the last eight years and her family's hopes hinge on Mr Mahdi’s relatives granting a pardon.
Under Sharia law, the only way to halt an execution is an unconditional pardon by the victim’s family or an acceptance of blood money. Diya or blood money 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 mobilise funds and public opinion to commute her death sentence.
They raised $40,000 through crowdfunding and the money was split in two instalments and sent to lawyers in Yemen hired by the Indian government for Ms Priya’s defence.
The diya money was raised to $1million this month after business leaders, prominent industrialists and the community in Kerala and overseas including the UAE 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. She is from a humble background and her mother was a housemaid in Kerala. 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 had confiscated her passport leaving her unable to travel to India to meet her mother, husband and young daughter.
Her lawyer argued that she injected Mr Mahdi with sedatives so that she could retrieve her passport but this led to his death from an accidental overdose.
A court in Sanaa sentenced her death in 2020, her family’s appeal was rejected in 2023 by Yemen’s Supreme Judicial Council and her execution was approved in January this year.
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Married Malala
Malala Yousafzai is enjoying married life, her father said.
The 24-year-old married Pakistan cricket executive Asser Malik last year in a small ceremony in the UK.
Ziauddin Yousafzai told The National his daughter was ‘very happy’ with her husband.
'How To Build A Boat'
Jonathan Gornall, Simon & Schuster
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Country-size land deals
US interest in purchasing territory is not as outlandish as it sounds. Here's a look at some big land transactions between nations:
Louisiana Purchase
If Donald Trump is one who aims to broker "a deal of the century", then this was the "deal of the 19th Century". In 1803, the US nearly doubled in size when it bought 2,140,000 square kilometres from France for $15 million.
Florida Purchase Treaty
The US courted Spain for Florida for years. Spain eventually realised its burden in holding on to the territory and in 1819 effectively ceded it to America in a wider border treaty.
Alaska purchase
America's spending spree continued in 1867 when it acquired 1,518,800 km2 of Alaskan land from Russia for $7.2m. Critics panned the government for buying "useless land".
The Philippines
At the end of the Spanish-American War, a provision in the 1898 Treaty of Paris saw Spain surrender the Philippines for a payment of $20 million.
US Virgin Islands
It's not like a US president has never reached a deal with Denmark before. In 1917 the US purchased the Danish West Indies for $25m and renamed them the US Virgin Islands.
Gwadar
The most recent sovereign land purchase was in 1958 when Pakistan bought the southwestern port of Gwadar from Oman for 5.5bn Pakistan rupees.
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
Venue: Sharjah Cricket Stadium
Date: Sunday, November 25
Gothia Cup 2025
4,872 matches
1,942 teams
116 pitches
76 nations
26 UAE teams
15 Lebanese teams
2 Kuwaiti teams
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Who has been sanctioned?
Daniella Weiss and Nachala
Described as 'the grandmother of the settler movement', she has encouraged the expansion of settlements for decades. The 79 year old leads radical settler movement Nachala, whose aim is for Israel to annex Gaza and the occupied West Bank, where it helps settlers built outposts.
Harel Libi & Libi Construction and Infrastructure
Libi has been involved in threatening and perpetuating acts of aggression and violence against Palestinians. His firm has provided logistical and financial support for the establishment of illegal outposts.
Zohar Sabah
Runs a settler outpost named Zohar’s Farm and has previously faced charges of violence against Palestinians. He was indicted by Israel’s State Attorney’s Office in September for allegedly participating in a violent attack against Palestinians and activists in the West Bank village of Muarrajat.
Coco’s Farm and Neria’s Farm
These are illegal outposts in the West Bank, which are at the vanguard of the settler movement. According to the UK, they are associated with people who have been involved in enabling, inciting, promoting or providing support for activities that amount to “serious abuse”.
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