[Kerala woman sentenced to death in Yemen] Delhi High Court requests Central govt. to facilitate family's travel to Yemen

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday requested the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to facilitate travel to Yemen of the family members of a woman from Kerala sentenced to death for the murder of a Yemeni national [Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council Through its Chairman v Union of India and Anr]..Justice Yashwant Varma requested the Central government to facilitate the travel so that the family can pursue judicial remedies available, by filing an appeal before the Yemeni Supreme Court..The High Court was dealing with a petition filed by an organisation, Save Nimisha Priya, seeking a direction to the Government of India to initiate negotiations with the family of the murdered victim so that her life can be saved by them paying blood money -- the compensation paid by an offender or his kin to the family of the victim..Advocate Anurag Ahluwalia, appearing for the Central government, told the Court that the government faces several difficulties in the region as there is no embassy or consulate in Yemen, and Indian diplomats are operating from the nearby country of Djibouti. They will, however, initiate necessary steps for filing an appeal before the country’s top court, and try to facilitate the family’s travel as well, it was submitted.The government counsel, however, stated that it cannot enter into negotiation with the victim’s family for the payment of blood money, The High Court concurred noting that it cannot command the government to enter into such negotiations..Nimisha Priya who worked as a nurse in Yemen, and was convicted for a murder in 2017.It is alleged that she injected one Yemeni national Talal Abdo Mahdi with sedatives so that she could take her passport from him while he was unconscious. Mahdi, however, died of overdose, the plea filed through advocate Subhash Chandran KR said.It alleged that Mehdi had forged documents to show that he was married to her. He had sought his help to start her own clinic but he cheated on her financially and later started torturing her, it was stated.A Yemeni court convicted her for the murder and sentenced to death in 2020. The sentence was appealed before a Sana’a court, which rejected the case earlier this month..The plea stated that even though another chance of appeal the Yemeni Supreme Court/Supreme Judicial Council exists with Priya, it is unlikely that she will be spared the punishment awarded by the lower court and therefore her only hope to come out of the death sentence is if the victim’s family accepts blood money.“Now, the only way for her to escape from the death penalty is to gain pardon from the family of the deceased by paying blood money to the family in accordance with the law of land. It is come to know from the lawyer who represented her before the appeal court that the option for „blood money‟ is kept open by the appeal court,” the plea stated.It said that her only child, a nine-year-old girl, is living in an orphanage, her mother is a domestic help in Kerala and her husband is an auto rickshaw driver. The entire family is facing serious challenges to deal with the ongoing legal processes there, the plea pointed out.“If family of the victim agreed to pardon her by receiving blood money, the petitioner is unable to pay the same as financial transactions to Yemen are also restricted by the Indian authorities. The petitioner herein as well as the family of Nimisha Priya has made many representations / communications to respondents regarding the case of Nimisha Priya but did not receive any positive reply from them,” the petition said..Plea in Delhi High Court seeks Govt. intervention to pay 'blood money' to save Kerala woman sentenced to death for murder in Yemen