Nimisha Priya, a 36-year-old nurse from Kerala, is at the heart of a widely publicized case in Yemen, where she has been sentenced to death for the alleged murder of Yemeni national Talal Abdo Mahdi in 2017. The case has sparked significant concern in India, with the Indian government offering its full support to explore all avenues to assist her. This week, Yemen’s President Rashad al-Alimi approved Priya’s death sentence, and her execution is set to take place within the next month.
The Incident and Trial
Priya was convicted of killing Talal Abdo Mahdi, a Yemeni national, in July 2017. She reportedly attempted to retrieve her passport, which Mahdi had confiscated, by sedating him with an overdose of drugs. Her intention was said to be to knock him unconscious, but Mahdi tragically died as a result of the overdose. Following his death, Priya and her colleague, Yemeni national Hanan, allegedly dismembered Mahdi’s body and disposed of it in a water tank.
In 2018, the trial court in Yemen sentenced Priya to death, a decision that was upheld by Yemen’s Supreme Court in 2023. Recently, the Yemeni president gave his approval for the sentence, raising the urgency of the situation.
A Tragic Backstory
Priya’s story in Yemen began in 2011 when she moved there to work as a nurse in the capital, Sana’a. Financial pressures led her husband and daughter to return to India in 2014, and the ongoing civil war in Yemen prevented their reunion. Priya chose to remain in Yemen, where she later collaborated with Mahdi to open a clinic, a legal requirement for foreign nationals working in the country.
However, Priya’s association with Mahdi soon turned abusive. He allegedly manipulated documents to claim he was married to her and subjected her to emotional and physical abuse, including torture and threats. Priya claimed that Mahdi seized her passport, demanded money from her clinic, and used drugs to control her. Although she reported the abuse to local authorities, the police took no action against Mahdi, instead arresting Priya herself.
In 2017, in a desperate attempt to regain her passport and escape the abusive situation, Priya reportedly sought help from a local jail warden, who suggested using sedatives to incapacitate Mahdi. Unfortunately, the overdose resulted in Mahdi’s death, leading to Priya’s arrest and her eventual conviction.
