Kanthapuram's efforts spark hope for nurse
Sources close to Kanthapuram said that efforts are on to reach a consensus within Mahdi's family and postpone the punishment until then. Priya, who is on death row at the central prison in Yemen's capital Sana'a, is scheduled to be executed on July 16.
She is on death row for the 2017 murder of Yemeni national Talal Abdo Mahdi. Kanthapuram, who holds the title of Grand Mufti of India, reached out to prominent Yemeni Islamic scholar Sheikh Habib Omar seeking his help to urge Mahdi's family to grant pardon to Priya by accepting 'blood money'.
Omar's representative Habib Abdurrahman Ali Mashoor along with representatives of the Yemeni government, the supreme judge of Jinayat court and tribal leaders held discussions in Mahdi's native place Damar in northern Yemen. The talks are expected to continue on Tuesday. Sources said their contacts, who took part in the talks, conveyed that Monday's discussions were promising and they expect a positive decision during follow-up talks on Tuesday.
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They are hopeful that Omar, who is influential in Yemen, would be able to persuade Mahdi's family and all tribal leaders. Omar, who is a respected Sufi scholar in Yemen, had visited Kanthapuram's Markazu Saquafathi Sunniyya to attend a function.
Sources said a dialogue with the victim's family became possible and the presence of various stakeholders, including tribal leaders, is seen as a positive step in the highly-sensitive Mahdi murder case among northern Yemen's tribal groups.
Meanwhile office-bearers of Nimisha Priya International Action Council thanked Kanthapuram for his intervention.
Nimisha, a native of Kollengode in Palakkad, was accused of murdering Talal Abdo Mahdi with whom she had started a health clinic in Sana'a. She allegedly chopped his body and dumped the parts in a water tank. Mahdi had reportedly tortured her and illegally seized her passport which allegedly led to the murder.
A trial court sentenced her to death in 2018 and an appeals court later upheld the sentence.
The lack of formal diplomatic ties with Yemen's Houthi militants posed an issue in securing her release. While Houthi militias control Sana'a, the rest of the country is governed by the internationally recognized Saudi-backed govt and the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council. The Yemeni embassy in Delhi represents the Saudi-backed govt and has no official ties with Houthis.
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