Yemeni authorities are said to have postponed the execution of Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya against the backdrop of diplomatic and humanitarian efforts by India.
The execution, originally scheduled for July 16, has been pushed back, sources in New Delhi said on Tuesday. 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.
However, it is not clear how long the execution, ordered by the Yemen Supreme Court, will be kept in abeyance.
Speaking to The Telegraph over the phone, Priya’s husband Tomy Thomas expressed relief.
“I’ve been jittery all these days. On Tuesday, when people from various quarters who have been relentlessly trying to get my wife released called me one after another, I couldn’t hide my feelings. I strongly believe that I will be able to meet my wife soon. I know there are further hurdles to cross. At the same time, I’m not aware how long the reprieve will continue,” Thomas said.
The Centre had told the Supreme Court on Monday that it had done everything in its capacity to save Priya and there was nothing more it could do.
On Tuesday, the government issued a statement saying that it had been in constant talks with the jail authorities and prosecutors.
Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council chairman Samuel Jerome, a Malayali social worker based in Yemen, vice-chairman Deepa Joseph, a Supreme Court lawyer, and former Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy’s son Chandy Oommen had been among those making relentless efforts to save Priya from being executed.
Kerala governor Rajendra Arlekar and Kanthapuram A.P. Aboobacker Musliyar, the Grand Mufti of India, also joined the efforts. Arlekar took up the issue with the ministry of external affairs and also spoke to industrialist M.A. Yusuff Ali, chairman and managing director of LuLu Group International.
Yusuff Ali had assured the governor that he was willing to pay blood money to the Yemeni victim’s family. Kanthapuram spoke to Mahdi’s family. After receiving the “document” from the Yemen Supreme Court on Tuesday afternoon mentioning that the execution had been postponed, Kanthapuram met the media at Markazu Saqafathi Sunniyya, an academic and charitable organisation based in Kozhikode.
“Talks are still on with the family members of the Yemeni victim through Islamic scholar Habib Umar bin Hafiz. My mission was to postpone the execution of Nimisha Priya, which has been accomplished,” Kanthapuram said.
A source close to Kanthapuram told this newspaper that rounds of talks with family members of Mahdi, Muslim clerics in Yemen, lawyers, prosecutors and judges of the Yemen Supreme Court had been fruitful to a large extent.
“Our mission was to postpone the execution.... Now the next mission is to quash the execution. The victim’s family is quite influential and there have been differences of opinion on the postponement of Nimisha Priya’s execution. Yemeni cleric Habib Umar bin Hafiz’s involvement has been highly crucial. The execution postponement order issued in Arabic does not set any deadline, which is good in a way,” said a source close to Kanthapuram.
Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who returned from the US after medical treatment, conveyed his gratitude to Kanthapuram for the significant stride he had made in breaking the ice.
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.