In a new development, the Embassy of Yemen in India has announced that the Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council Rashad al-Alimi has not “ratified” the death sentence of Indian nurse Nimisha Priya and declared that the Houthi militia of the country handled the “entire case”. The announcement came days after it was widely reported that the death sentence for the nurse had been approved by Mr. Alimi.
“The Yemeni government emphasizes that the entire case has been handled by the Houthi militias and therefore, His Excellency Dr. Rashad Al-Alimi, Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council, Republic of Yemen has not ratified the judgement,” a statement issued by the Embassy of Yemen declared on Monday while responding to reports published by a media outlet in Kerala.
The statement further said that Ms. Priya is “currently detained in Sanaa under the authority of the Houthi militia”.
The statement comes days after a high-level Iranian official had declared that Tehran would “take up” Ms. Priya’s case. While the declaration by the Yemen embassy has added a new dimension to the case, a statement from the MEA is awaited.
The opposing statements are a sign of the prevailing political situation of Yemen where the country is divided among three different entities. While the Houthi militias control Sanaa, the rest of the country is controlled by an internationally recognised and Saudi-backed government and UAE-backed Southern Transition Council (STC). The Yemen embassy in Delhi represents the Saudi-backed government; the Houthi militia does not have any official connection with India.
Houthi militants of Yemen are organised along the Ansar Allah group, which controls capital Sanaa and around 50% of the population. Ms. Priya was given the death sentence in Sanaa for the murder of her business partner Talal Abdo Mahdi in 2017.
Save Nimisha Priya Action Council, a group of lawyers and activists in Kerala, has claimed that the case is at a standstill and there is no clarity about the fate of the nurse at the moment. A spokesperson of the group who spoke to The Hindu urged the Ministry of External Affairs to take up the initiative to find the present status of the case.
Ms. Priya’s mother Prema Kumari is now in Yemen as negotiations are currently going on to ensure a solution can be arranged through payment of “blood money”, an established practice of settling criminal cases in Yemen.
Published – January 06, 2025 01:19 pm IST
