The Delhi High Court on Tuesday permitted the mother of a Kerala woman, who is on death row in Yemen for killing a Yemeni national, to travel to the West Asian country.
Ms Prema Kumari wants to go there and negotiate over “blood money” with the victim’s family and save her daughter Nimisha Priya from the gallows.
Blood money refers to the compensation paid by offenders or their kin to the family of a murder victim.
Justice Subramonium Prasad directed the Central government to relax its 2017 notification – which barred Indian nationals from travelling to Yemen – for the petitioner, subject to her filing an affidavit that she would travel with another person to the restive nation at her own risk.
Yemen’s Supreme Court had on Nov 13 dismissed the appeal of Priya, who was working as a nurse in Yemen, against her sentence.
She has been convicted of murdering Mr Talal Abdo Mahdi, who died in July 2017 after she injected him with sedatives in order to get back her passport from his possession.
Ms Kumari’s lawyer informed the high court that Yemen’s Supreme Court gave Priya a last option of escaping the gallows by securing a pardon from the victim’s family through the payment of blood money.
He said a letter informing the family about the Supreme Court dismissing Priya’s appeal was received on Dec 1, and her execution can take place at any time.
The Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council had approached the high court last year and sought direction to the Central government to facilitate diplomatic intervention as well as negotiations with the family of the victim on behalf of the accused.
The petition alleged Mr Mahdi had forged documents to show he and Priya were married. It also alleged he abused and tortured her.
Indo-Asian News Service
