new delhi: An appeal has been filed in the Delhi High Court seeking diplomatic intervention to save a Kerala woman who is on death row in Yemen for the murder of a Yemeni national.
The plea by an organisation has also sought direction to the Centre to facilitate negotiations with the victim's family and save Indian citizen Nimisha Priya from capital punishment by paying blood money in accordance with Yemen's laws.
Blood money refers to the compensation paid by an offender or his kin to the family of the victim.
Nimisha Priya was an Indian nurse working in Yemen and she was convicted in 2020 for the murder of the Yemini national Talal Abdo Mahdi. Mahdi died in July 2017 allegedly of overdose after she injected him with sedatives to get her passport that was in his possession. The plea had alleged that Mahdi had forged documents to show that he was married to her and that she was abused and tortured by him.
The petitioner 'Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council' has challenged a March 15 order of the single judge who had disposed of the organisation's plea for the Ministry of External Affairs to explore and pursue the remedy of a further appeal against the Yemen court's order of conviction.
The single judge had refused to direct the involvement of the central government in the payment of blood money in connection with the death sentence awarded to the woman and had said that no embassy can be part of negotiations to pay blood money.
It had said that the court cannot ask the government of India to countenance such a payment and had requested authorities to facilitate the appropriate legal action against the conviction of the woman.
The petitioner has sought a direction to the central government to facilitate diplomatic interventions as well as negotiations with the family of the victim on behalf of Ms. Nimisha Priya to save her life by paying blood money in accordance with the law of the land in a time-bound manner.