The execution of Indian nurse in Yemen, scheduled for Wednesday (July 16, 2025), has been put off following the intervention of influential Sunni Muslim cleric Kanthapuram A P Aboobacker Musliyar. Though this has come as a huge relief for the family of the nurse back home in Kerala, a brother of her former business partner and victim in Yemen, Talal Abdo Mahdi, has made it clear the family's demand for the strict application of God’s Law in Qisas. This has come as a setback for Nimisha Priya, her family and the good hearted people who are trying to save her life.
Earlier, Nimisha Priya's lawyer Subhash Chandran K R had said that through the intervention of Kanthapuram Aboobacker Musliyar, they have reached out to one of the family members of Talal Abdo Mahdi, as well as some local authorities and religious leaders. "We are trying our best so that the family accepts the blood money and the Kerala nurse is spared from death row," he said.
Subash Chandran is part of the Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council.
The latest information is that the family of Talal Abdo Mahdi has declined to accept the blood money.
Under Shariah law, which governs criminal justice in Yemen, blood money is a form of legally sanctioned financial compensation to the family of a murder victim and is considered a valid alternative to capital punishment if accepted by the heirs.
The family of the victim has unequivocally made it clear that they will not accept anything less than Nimisha Priya's execution.
In a Facebook post following the postponement of Nimisha Priya’s execution, the victim’s brother Abdelfattah Mahdi said the family rejected all efforts at reconciliation, including offers of diyat or blood money.
In the Facebook post Abdelfattah Mahdi said, Now it's been (execution) postponed and we were not expecting that -unfortunately- especially that those who have stopped the implementation know our absolute refusal to any attempt to reconcile in any form.."
"In any case, what is after setting the execution date is more difficult than before. We shall follow execution till execution.
Delay won't flex, pressure won't move us, blood can't buy...And the truth is not forgotten...
Retribution will come no matter how long the road takes, it's a matter of time, and from God help," he noted
However, the lawyer who represents Nimisha Priya, Subhash Chandran told TNIE that he had come to know that a brother of the victim has given a byte to the BBC dissenting against reconciliation. "But, we see it as a part of the process and not as a setback. Our aim is to convince the whole family ."
To a query, he replied, "We're as optimistic as we were on Tuesday when the execution was put off and there are a good lot of people working to spare the Kerala nurse from death row.
The Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council itself has a core committee of 19 members and it has over 300 members from different diaspora. Then, apart from intervention of people like Kanthapuram Aboobacker Musliyar, there are people like businessman M A Yusuff Ali, director of LuLu Group, abd Boby Chemmanur who have come forward to contribute financially to save Nimisha Priya, the lawyer said.
Nimisha Priya, 38, hailing from Palakkad in Kerala, was convicted of murdering Yemeni national Talal Abdo Mahdi in 2017. She was apprehended while trying to flee the country and sentenced to death in 2020. Her final appeal was rejected in 2023.