Family members of an Indian nurse on death row in war-torn Yemen say they are pinning their hopes on a last-ditch effort to save her.
Nimisha Priya, 34, was sentenced to death for the murder of a local man – her former business partner Talal Abdo Mahdi – whose dismembered body was discovered in a water tank in 2017.
Housed in the central prison of the capital Sana’a, she is about to be executed, and Mahdi al-Mashat, chairman of the Houthi rebels’ Supreme Political Council, approved her sentence this week.
Under the Islamic justice system, known as Sharia, the only way to stop an execution now is to obtain a pardon from the victim’s family. For months, Nimishani’s relatives and supporters have been trying to do this by collecting diyah, the blood money, to be paid to the Mahdi’s family, and negotiations have been ongoing.
But as time runs out, fans say their hopes rest entirely on the family’s decision.
With the presidential sanction coming, the public prosecutor’s office will again seek the consent of Mahdi’s family and ask them if they object to the execution, said Samuel Jerome, a social worker from Yemen who has power of attorney on behalf of Nimisha’s mother.
“If they say they don’t want her or can pardon her, the sentence would be terminated immediately,” he said.
“Forgiveness is the first step. Whether the family will accept the bloodbath comes only after that.”
Under Yemeni law, Nimisha’s family cannot contact the victim’s family directly and must engage negotiators.
Subhash Chandran, a lawyer who has previously represented Nimisha’s family in India, told the BBC that the family had already raised $40,000 (£32,268) for the victim’s family. The money was given in two tranches to lawyers hired by the Indian government to negotiate the case (the delay in sending the second tranche affected negotiations, Mr. Jerome says).
“Now we have to explore the scope for talks with [victim’s] families, which is only possible with the support of the Indian government,” said Mr. Chandran.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs said they are aware of Nimisha’s situation and are providing all possible assistance to the family.
Her family is anxious, but also full of hope.
“Nimisha doesn’t know what’s going on behind the prison doors,” said her husband, Tony Thomas, who spoke to her in the hours before the death sentence was handed down. “All she wants to know is if our daughter is okay.”
Nimisha’s mother is currently in Sana’a, having traveled there last year after a trial in India allowed to go to the region controlled by the Houthi rebels. Since then, she has met her daughter twice in prison.
The first reunion was very emotional. “Nimisha saw me…she said I had become weak and asked me to stay brave, and that God would save her. She asked me not to be sad,” her mother Prema Kumari told the BBC.
Another time Ms. Kumari was accompanied by two nuns who held prayers for her daughter in prison.
Nimisha was barely 19 years old when she went to Yemen.
The daughter of a low-paid housekeeper, she wanted to change her family’s financial situation, and worked as a nurse at the state hospital in Sana for several years.
In 2011, she returned home – the city of Kochi in southern India – and married Mr Thomas, a tuk-tuk driver.
The couple moved to Yemen together soon after. But financial difficulties forced Mr Thomas to return to India with their baby daughter.
Tired of low-paying hospital jobs, Nimisha decided to open her own clinic in Yemen.
As the local law required her to have a local partner, she opened the clinic together with Mahdi, the shop owner.
The two were initially on good terms – when Nimisha briefly visited India for her daughter’s baptism, Mahdi accompanied her.
“He seemed like a nice man when he came to our house,” Thomas told the BBC.
But Mahdi’s attitude, Thomas argues, “suddenly changed” when Yemen’s civil war broke out in 2014.
At the time, Nimisha was trying to complete the paperwork so that her husband and daughter could rejoin her.
But after the war broke out, the Indian government banned all travel to Yemen, making it impossible for them to be with her.
In the following days, thousands of Indians were evacuated from the country, but Nimisha decided to stay because she took out huge loans to open her clinic.
Around then, Nimisha began complaining about Mahdi’s behavior, including allegations of physical torture, Mr. Thomas said.
In a court petition, filed by a group called Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council, it is alleged that Mahdi robbed her of all her money, confiscated her passport and even threatened her with a gun.
After Mahdi’s body was discovered in 2017, police accused Nimish of killing him by giving him an “overdose of sedatives” and allegedly dismembering his body.
Nimisha denied the allegations. In court, her lawyer claimed that she tried to give Mahdi anesthesia only to take his passport, but that the dose was accidentally increased.
In 2020, a local court sentenced Nimish to death. Three years later, in 2023, her family challenged the decision at the Yemeni Supreme Court, but their appeal was rejected.
Even with so many twists and turns, the family doesn’t want to give up hope.
“My heart says we can reach a settlement and save Nimisha’s life,” Mr Thomas said.
More than anything, he said, he is worried about their daughter, now 13, who has “never experienced a mother’s love.”
“They talk on the phone every week and my daughter gets upset if she misses a call,” Mr Thomas said.
“She needs her mother. What will she do without her?”
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