Deceased’s brother rejects clemency for Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya

The execution of Nimisha Priya, convicted of murdering her Yemeni business partner in 2017, has been deferred amid negotiations. The victim’s family demands justice, while Indian officials and religious leaders push for a pardon through a ‘blood money’ settlement

New Delhi: Abdelfattah Mehdi, brother of Talal Abdo Mehdi, who was allegedly murdered by Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya in 2017, has asserted that there can be no pardon for the crime. He said that Nimisha Priya has to be executed.

Abdelfattah also expressed firmly the family’s deep displeasure in the manner in which the Indian media has been “distorting things to portray the convicted as a victim”. Incidentally, Nimisha Priya was to be executed on Wednesday, but following the lengthy period of multipronged negotiations, her execution has been kept in abeyance.

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Numerous efforts from several quarters, which included full support of the Indian government, besides agencies based in Saudi Arabia and religious intervention from the Grand Mufti, Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musliyar, who reportedly reached out to a friend in Yemen’s Shoora Council to help mediate, all led to the decision of deferring the execution until further orders.

State CPI-M secretary MV Govindan on Wednesday morning met Musliyar, and negotiations are underway. “Musliyar has told me that the execution has been kept in abeyance, and there are more aspects which are being discussed. He said people are engaged in talks with authorities in Yemen and also the family who has to give the pardon,” said Govindan.

Meanwhile, the biggest relief that has come is that the execution has been kept in abeyance until further orders. It’s the family of the deceased that can pardon Nimisha Priya. However, with a difference of opinion surfacing in the family, the religious people involved in the negotiations, besides officials, are trying their best to resolve the issue.

The biggest hurdle now seems to be making the family understand the tragedy, and once that’s done, the ‘blood money’ will be handed over.

Meanwhile, it has been learnt that the next part of the negotiation will centre around the ‘blood money’ that will be given. For the unversed, ‘blood money’ is monetary compensation to the family of the person killed in exchange for forgiveness. It is an accepted practice under Sharia law.

Kerala billionaire MA Yusuf Ali has expressed his willingness to chip in with whatever financial support is needed. The efforts of the Indian government have been vital, and all eyes are on the negotiations, which are underway in full earnestness.

Priya is currently lodged in a jail in Yemen, facing the death penalty for the alleged murder of her former business partner Mehdi, in 2017. Since the announcement of the execution date, politicians across party lines in Kerala have appealed to the Union government and the President for urgent intervention.

Priya moved to Yemen in 2008 to support her family and initially worked as a nurse before opening her clinic. In 2017, following a dispute with Mehdi — her business partner — she allegedly administered sedatives to him in a bid to retrieve her confiscated passport. However, the sedatives proved fatal. She was arrested while attempting to flee the country and was convicted of murder in 2018.

A death sentence was handed down in 2020 and upheld by Yemen’s Supreme Judicial Council in November 2023. However, the court allowed the possibility of clemency through a blood money arrangement.