Abdul Fattah Mahdi, brother of slain Yemeni businessman Talal Abdo Mahdi, has dismissed any role by Indian religious leader Kanthapuram A P Aboobacker Musliar in securing a reprieve for Indian nurse Nimisha Priya, who faces the death penalty in Yemen. He reiterated his family’s demand for her immediate execution. He also shared a news article in which Kanthapuram said that his efforts to secure Nimisha Priya’s reprieve were guided solely by a sense of duty, not personal recognition.

In two strongly worded Facebook posts, Abdul Fattah said that any attempt by “the Office of the Dawat, Kanthapuram or Habib Umar Bin Hafiz” to contact his parents would not be entertained. Nimisha Priya's execution, scheduled for July 16, was postponed due to an intervention by Kanthapuram.

“It was the duty of the Indian preacher to respect the blood of the victim and honestly realize and clarify the truth during this period. We have strictly prohibited any meeting or discussion with any parents of Dam Talal, either directly or through any medium by the Office of the Dawat, Kanthapuram or Habib Umar Bin Hafiz The religion of Islam is the religion of truth and truth, not the religion of distortion and falsification!!
We’ve said it over and over again: If the news were true, we’d have announced it first.
This is our right and this is our blood, we are not afraid of anyone, there is no room for provocation and distortion of the truth, and they have to prove the opposite,” he wrote.

Accusing certain individuals of exploiting his brother’s death for personal gain, he vowed that the family would not relent “until it is written for this blood to win.” In a second post, he graphically described the murder, accusing Priya of causing “nine years of torment” for the family. He recalled the “groans of the murderer in prison” and contrasted them with the agony suffered by his brother, whom he said was dismembered and concealed in an underground water tank. He described his parents’ anguish and said justice must take its course “even if the heavens fall.”

Abdul Fattah’s statements came a day after Kanthapuram, general secretary of the All India Jamiyyathul Ulama, told a gathering in Kozhikode that his efforts to secure Nimisha Priya respite were guided solely by a sense of duty, not personal recognition. Addressing the valedictory session of the Kerala State Sunni Students Federation’s State-level Sahityotsav, he said diplomatic and humanitarian channels were being used to try to commute the death sentence.

Abdul Fattah on Saturday said his family had already met Yemen’s Deputy General and submitted a letter to the Attorney General demanding that a date be set for the execution. The letter called Priya’s act “brutal and unprecedented,” alleging that she killed Talal, dismembered his body, placed the remains in bags, and hid them in a sealed underground tank.

He added that the execution was postponed at the Attorney General’s direction, but his family had repeatedly urged for a new date, rejecting any form of clemency.

Nimisha Priya, a nurse from Palakkad, Kerala, was convicted in 2020 of murdering Talal in 2017. She has been on death row in Houthi-controlled northern Yemen. Mediation by Indian religious leaders and Yemeni scholars has so far delayed her execution, while her supporters in India continue to raise diya (blood money) in hopes of securing a pardon through legal means.