KOCHI/PALAKKAD : In a huge relief to the family of 30-year-old Indian nurse Nimisha Priya, sentenced to death by a court in Yemen for murdering a Yemen national Talal Abdo Mahdi, an appeal court in Yemen on Saturday granted an interim stay on the death penalty imposed on her. However, the court has not mentioned the duration of the stay.
Advocate K L Balachandran, who has been appointed the counsel by the NRI (Keralite) Commission to assist Nimisha Priya in the case, told TNIE that there was a stay on the death sentence and the execution will be delayed. He said they will hire a senior counsel from Yemen to argue her case before the Supreme Judicial Council.Balachandran said a seven-member committee comprising two employees of the Indian embassy in Sana’a, a few social workers and himself, has been constituted to finalise the discussion on seeking pardon after paying the blood money of Rs 70 lakh.
Tomy Thomas, Nimisha’s husband, said they have received a communication from the lawyer’s office that the court had accepted the petition and a hearing will be held soon. Tomy has been desperately trying to raise `70 lakh as there have been discussions about a possible pardon by paying blood money.
Nimisha, who hails from Palakkad, was found guilty of murdering Talal Abdo Mahdi in 2017 and disposing of his body in a water tank at her house after chopping it into pieces. Though she has been convicted of the murder, Nimisha has pleaded for help submitting that lack of proper legal aid had resulted in her conviction and that she was a victim of physical torture and death threats at the hands of Talal.
Already, the trial court in Yemen had awarded life imprisonment to co-accused Hanan, who helped Nimisha in the crime. The duo was arrested in August 2017.