Venugopal writes to PM to save Kerala nurse Nimisha from execution in Yemen

New Delhi: Congress leader K C Venugopal on Saturday sought the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in saving Kerala-born Nimisha Priya from execution in Yemen. In a post on X, Venugopal said Priya is a victim of "unimaginable cruelty and domestic abuse on foreign soil." "The death sentence against Nimisha Priya is a grave travesty of justice. She is a victim of unimaginable cruelty and domestic abuse on foreign soil, driven to the brink," the Congress general secretary, organisation, said in his post. "I've written to the PM seeking urgent intervention to prevent her execution," he added. The nurse from Kerala is slated to be sent to the gallows on July 16 in Yemen.

In his letter to the prime minister, Venugopal said, "While efforts have been made by the Action Council and her family to negotiate with the victim's family to accept 'blood money' (diyah), which could potentially spare her life, these negotiations have faced significant challenges, due to ongoing civil war and other internal disturbances." He urged the PM to intervene with "utmost priority imploring all possible diplomatic measures with the Yemeni authorities" to get the nurse off death row. Nimisha Priya, who hails from Kollengode in Palakkad district of Kerala, was convicted in 2020 for the murder of her Yemeni business partner in July 2017. Last November, Yemen's Supreme Judicial Council rejected her appeal, and the country's public prosecutor ordered that her sentence be carried out on Tuesday. Calls for urgent intervention have grown louder in Kerala against the verdict. Communist Party of India Rajya Sabha MP P Sandosh Kumar on Thursday wrote to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, and urged him to use "every possible diplomatic and humanitarian channel" to secure a stay on the nurse's execution. Priya is currently being held in Sana'a Central Prison.