Explained: Who is Nimisha Priya, Indian nurse on death row in Yemen in 2018 murder case?

The mother of a Kerala woman on death row in Yemen for the murder of a Yemeni national filed a request to visit her daughter, who is being held there, and the Delhi High Court ordered the Center to make a decision within a week. The central government's attorney told the court that Nimisha Priya, a nurse in the West Asian nation, had lost her appeal against her sentence on November 13th before Yemen's highest court.

Who is Nimisha Priya?
Nimisha Priya is from Kerala's Palakkad district. Following her graduation from a nursing program, she worked in a few private hospitals in Yemen.

Priya was found guilty of killing Talal Abdo Mahdi, who passed away in July 2017 as a result of a sedative injection she gave him to retrieve her passport from his custody.

In 2014, Ms Priya made contact with Talal Abdo Mahdi, who pledged to assist her in establishing her own clinic. Since Yemeni legislation mandates that every firm must be started in conjunction with a native, a partnership was necessary. However, Priya and Mahdi's disagreements caused the partnership to collapse quickly. In 2015, she proceeded to open her clinic with him; however, local sources claim that Mahdi began to intimidate Ms Priya.

Mahdi was accused of abusing and torturing Priya, as well as of forging paperwork to prove his marital status, in the previous suit. 

According to reports, Priya gave him a sedative injection so she could steal her passport from him while he was unconscious. He overdosed and died, though.

Ms Priya was found guilty of the murder in 2018 and sent to jail. She was later sentenced to death.

Earlier this year, Priya's mother filed a motion with the high court, requesting permission to go to Yemen despite an Indian national's travel prohibition to negotiate the "blood money" in order to save her daughter.

Blood money is the sum of money given to the victim's family by the culprit or his relatives.

According to a recent notification, the travel prohibition may be loosened and Indian citizens may be permitted to visit Yemen for certain purposes and periods of time, according to the Center's attorney on Thursday.

"In view of the representation, let the present petition be treated as a representation. Respondent is directed to decide the representation within one week from today," Justice Subramonium Prasad ordered.

The petitioner, represented by lawyer Subash Chandaran K R, had told the court earlier that the only way to save her daughter from the gallows was to negotiate with the deceased's family by paying blood money for which she has to travel to Yemen but due to the travel ban, she is unable to go there.

The "Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council" approached the high court last year, seeking direction to the Centre to "facilitate diplomatic interventions as well as negotiations with the family of the victim on behalf of Nimisha Priya to save her life by paying blood money in accordance with the law of the land in a time-bound manner".

Previously, the High Court had instructed the Centre to pursue legal action against the conviction in Yemen but had declined to order it to negotiate the payment of blood money to spare the woman.