The government of Yemen has “overturned” and “completely” cancelled the death sentence of Nimisha Priya, an Indian nurse convicted of murder, the office of Indian Grand Mufti, Sheikh Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musliyar, said late Monday but news channels early on Tuesday quoted external affairs ministry sources as saying the news was incorrect.
The execution, originally scheduled for July 16, was pushed back against the backdrop of diplomatic and humanitarian efforts by the Government of India. As per earlier media reports, the decision to revoke the death sentence was taken by high-level authorities at Yemen's capital, Sanaa.
Priya, 36, who hails from Kollengode in Kerala’s Palakkad district, had been found guilty of murdering a Yemeni citizen — her business partner Talal Abdo Mahdi — in July 2017.
Priya was convicted of murdering Mahdi in July 2017. She had allegedly injected him with sedatives with the plan to retrieve her passport while he would be unconscious. But Mahdi died apparently from an overdose, following which Priya allegedly hid his body in a water tank.