Family of Yemeni murder victim calls for execution of Indian nurse

The National

6 days ago

The family of Yemeni citizen Talal Mahdi have called for the execution of an Indian nurse convicted of his murder to go ahead, after she was granted a reprieve by authorities.
Nimisha Priya, a nurse from India's southern Kerala state, was scheduled to be executed in Sanaa on Wednesday. She was granted a postponement after a petition submitted by her family was accepted by Yemeni authorities.
She faces the death penalty for the murder of Mr Mahdi after police found his dismembered body in a water tank in 2017 and she has been in jail ever since.
Abdel Fattah Mahdi, the Yemeni national's brother, on Wednesday described the stay as an 'unfortunate surprise' and said it was 'only a matter of time' before a new date is set. He spoke of the family's anguish and said they would not change their stance despite the pressure they had endured over the past eight years.
'Blood cannot be bought, justice will not be forgotten and retribution will come, no matter how long the road. It is only a matter of time,' said the elder Mr Mahdi about the death penalty for Ms Priya.
'Our demand is clear: retribution, no more, no less, no matter what,' he said in a Facebook post on Wednesday. 'The recent postponement came as an unfortunate surprise, especially considering that those who stayed the execution were fully aware of our absolute refusal of reconciliation of any kind and by any means.'
He said the family was not surprised by efforts to mediate as there had been 'considerable efforts' through the years for mediation and reconciliation and that this was natural.
Mr Mahdi said the family would not be deterred by delays in the execution date and would 'see this through until the very end'.
He also denied his younger brother had seized the nurse's passport or exploited her and criticised the Indian media for portraying her as 'the victim in an attempt to justify a crime'.
Bridges burnt
Yemen's public prosecution authority accepted a petition appealing for a stay on Ms Priya's execution by her mother Prema Kumari and Indian social worker Samuel Jerome Baskaran.
Mr Baskaran, in Sanaa with Ms Kumari to offer support to the Indian nurse on death row, was not hopeful about the length of the postponement.
'I feel all bridges have been burned and the work we have done has vanished into thin air,' Mr Baskaran told The National from Sanaa.
While initially optimistic about a breakthrough, he said negotiations were derailed by the media focus on the offer of $1million in diya or blood money as compensation for Mr Mahdi's death and a lack of sensitivity by different groups in India attempting to reach members of the Yemeni family.
'This family has lost a son, we need to be in their shoes and feel their pain,' he said.
'People in India should understand the sentiment of the people of Yemen. I asked for forgiveness and apologised to Talal's brothers and his father when I met them. The only thing we can ask for is pardon and we tried to build trust with them. But just focusing on the blood money, this shows no respect for the family.'
Under Sharia, the only way to halt an execution is an unconditional pardon by the victim's family or acceptance of blood money that is usually paid to the family of the deceased by the party responsible for the death.
Family's pain
While Ms Priya's mother appealed for prayers so her daughter would live, the Mahdi family in Yemen has asked that justice should not remain as ink on paper.
Mr Mahdi has detailed how his brother was murdered in a 'gruesome manner' by the Indian national who drugged him, cut his body into pieces, hid it in plastic bags and buried it in an underground tank.
He said the family wanted 'god's justice' to be implemented for a chilling crime.
"Retribution is inevitable," he said in an earlier post before the execution was stayed. "The pens have been lifted, and the pages have dried. Our hearts are watchful, waiting with a mix of urgency and patience for the moment that has long been delayed.'
Lawyers for the Indian nurse said she had injected Mr Talal Mahdi with sedatives to retrieve her passport that he had confiscated leaving her unable to travel to India to see her husband and young daughter. Ms Priya's defence was that he died accidentally of an overdose of the sedatives.
During the trial in Yemen, her lawyer alleged she was physically and mentally abused by Mr Mahdi. But his family has maintained Ms Priya was married to Mr Mahdi and denied any abuse.
A court in Sanaa sentenced her to death in 2020, an appeal from her family was rejected in 2023 by Yemen's Supreme Judicial Council and her execution was approved by an order from the President in January this year.