Nurse sentenced to death in Yemen and more than 10,000 Indians imprisoned in the world
Pressure is mounting to save Nimisha Priya, held in Sana'a awaiting execution on 16 July for killing a Yemeni man who allegedly held her prisoner. The Indian Supreme Court will hear a petition on 14 July to urge the government to intervene. The case shines a spotlight on thousands of Indian nationals currently imprisoned in 86 countries around the world.
New Delhi (AsiaNews) – The death sentence inflicted on Indian nurse Nimisha Priya in Yemen is at the centre of intense diplomatic activity, after local media reported 16 July as the scheduled date for her execution.
Originally from Kerala, a state in southern India, she was convicted of killing a Yemeni man who held her prisoner.
Priya’s story, 37, begins in 2011 (or perhaps 2008, according to some sources), when she moved to Yemen to work as a nurse to financially support her elderly parents.
She opened a clinic after working in several hospitals, and in 2014, despite the escalating civil war, she decided to stay.
To comply with Yemeni regulations for foreign medical professionals, Priya took on a Yemeni partner, Talal Abdo Mahdi.
According to her testimony, Mahdi falsified documents to fake a marriage, subjecting her to years of physical abuse, financial exploitation, and threats.
The nurse reported that Mahdi withheld her passport and administered her drugs.
Priya claims that Mahdi prevented her from returning to India after confiscating her passport, a fairly common practice in Gulf countries against foreign workers. In an attempt to flee Yemen, she tried to sedate the man, but the dose proved fatal.
Convicted of murder in 2018, her death sentence was upheld in 2020 by a Yemeni court and reaffirmed by the Houthi Supreme Judicial Council in November 2023, the same year Yemeni President Rashad al-Alimi also gave his final approval.
Nimisha Priya is currently held in Sana'a, a city controlled by the Houthi administration and with which India does not maintain formal diplomatic relations, making negotiations extremely complex, despite Indian officials saying they are in constant contact with Yemeni authorities.
In a desperate attempt to secure her release, Priya's mother, Premakumari, a domestic worker from Kochi, travelled to Yemen last year to plead with Mahdi's family to spare her daughter's life.
Indian authorities have proposed a payment of "diyat," or “blood money," a financial compensation and the only legal alternative to capital punishment in Yemen.
However, despite efforts to raise funds through the "Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council," Mahdi's family refused the offer.
The Indian Supreme Court agreed to hear a petition on 14 July to further pressure the government to resolve the situation before the death sentence is carried out.
Nimisha Priya's case sheds light on the issue of Indian nationals incarcerated abroad. According to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, 10,152 Indians are currently detained in 86 countries worldwide.
The largest numbers are in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which each hold more than 2,000 Indians, including those awaiting trial.
Other Gulf countries, destinations for many Indian workers, such as Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar, also hold significant numbers of Indians in their prisons.
Nepal has 1,317 Indian prisoners, followed by Malaysia with 338 and China with 173. Twelve countries hold more than 100 Indian. Many of these individuals are awaiting trial.
India has signed agreements for the transfer of convicted people with several countries, including Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brazil, Cambodia, France, Hong Kong, Iran, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.
Nine of the twelve countries with more than 100 Indian prisoners are already covered by these agreements, which allow a person convicted of a crime to be transferred to their home country to serve their sentence.
Despite these agreements, success in returning prisoners to India has so far been limited. In the last three years (between 2023 and March 2025), only eight prisoners have been able to return to India to serve out their sentences: three from Iran, three from the United Kingdom, and one each from Cambodia and Russia.
The transfer of convicts is a lengthy process that requires multiple approvals. The Ministry of Home Affairs, which is the lead authority overseeing these transfers, said it is handling numerous cases and working on negotiating new agreements with other countries.
(Nirmala Carvalho contributed to this article)
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