Palakkad: The criminal prosecution team at the Supreme Court of Yemen has asked Keralite woman Nimisha Priya, who is on death row in a Yemeni jail, to provide the necessary documents for speeding up the case.
Nimisha is facing a death penalty for the murder of a Yemeni national in 2017. The prosecution's intervention comes at the bidding of the victim's family.
The documents to be submitted include the criminal first instance judgement, the original appeal judgement of convict, the appeal submitted by the convict and the response submitted by victim's blood relatives.
Since the efforts to arrange blood money and get a pardon made no progress, the new development jeopardises the prospects of securing Nimisha's release.
Yemen officials had earlier asked Nimisha's lawyers to arrange the documents before the commencement of Ramadan. But the prosecution's move comes a month-and-half ahead of the holy month. The Supreme Court will pronounce a verdict shortly after the documents are submitted.
Palakkad native Nimisha Priya was a nurse in Yemen when she was convicted in 2020 for the murder of Yemeni national Talal Abdo Mahdi.
Mahdi died in July 2017 allegedly of overdose after she injected him with sedatives to get her passport that was in his possession.
According to Priya, Mahdi had also forged documents to show that she was married to him. She also said that Mahdi abused and tortured her.
The 'Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council' has been trying to get a pardon for her from capital punishment by paying blood money. Justice Kurian Joseph also heads the mediation team of the council.
July 2017: Nimisha Priya gets arrested in Sana’a for murdering a Yemeni national, Talal Abdo Mahdi
October 2017: India bans travel of Indian nationals to Yemen
August 2020: A trial court in Sana’a sentences her to death; Nimisha Priya files an appeal
September 2020: An action council to save Priya starts functioning
March 2022: The appeal court upholds the death sentence; the action council files a writ petition in Delhi High Court seeking the Union government’s help to negotiate with the victim’s family
