In a significant development on December 12, Tuesday, the Delhi High Court has granted permission for Prema Kumari, the mother of Nimisha Priya, a Malayali nurse facing the death penalty in Yemen to travel to the country. The court allowed her to travel to Yemen at her own risk, with no liability to the Union government and Kerala state government.
The Union government had issued a travel advisory in September 2017, imposing strict regulations on travel to Yemen due to the fragile security situation and ongoing armed hostilities in certain regions of the country.
Justice Subramonium Prasad, presiding over the case, directed the government to relax the advisory under a clause which empowers it to grant relaxation for a limited period upon the request of the applicant, subject to their own risk. The court instructed Nimisha's mother to file an affidavit specifying her travel dates and return date.
Notably, two affidavits were submitted by individuals willing to accompany Prema Kumari to Yemen, offering assistance in exploring legal remedies to help Nimisha Priya avoid the death penalty. Nimisha, a native of Kerala's Palakkad, was convicted of murdering Talal Abdo Mahdi, dismembering his body, and disposing of the remains in a water tank at her residence in Yemen.
During the court proceedings, Prema Kumari highlighted the urgency of her travel to Yemen, emphasising that negotiating with the deceased's family and offering blood money was the only way to save her daughter from the death penalty. However, the travel ban had hindered her ability to pursue this course of action.
Nimisha Priya, who had been operating a clinic in Yemen since 2015 with a Yemeni citizen called Talal, claimed to have endured two years of torture at his hands. She asserted that he had confiscated her passport, making her return home impossible, and that the killing was unintentional. Nimisha explained that her intention was to sedate Talal by administering an injection, allowing her to retrieve her passport while he remained sedated. Unfortunately, he collapsed and died during the process.
Read from archive: He tortured me for 2 yrs: Indian woman on death row for murder in Yemen seeks help
The court's decision to grant permission for Prema Kumari's travel to Yemen marks a crucial step in the ongoing legal battle to secure Nimisha Priya's release from death row.