An Iranian official has offered assistance to Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya who is on death row in Yemen.
"We are willing to do whatever we can on humanitarian ground," ANI quoted a senior Iranian official as saying.
Although the nurse, who has been convicted of murder, was arrested outside the territory controlled by Tehran-backed Houthis, the Iranian official said they will do everything to free her.
This comes after the central government said it is extending all possible help to explore relevant options. Nimisha Priya was found guilty of murdering a Yemeni citizen, Talal Abdo Mahdi, and has been in jail since 2017.
She and her husband, Tomy Thomas, wanted to open their own clinic so they partnered with Mahdi as Yemeni laws required a local partner. However, Mahdi withheld the clinic's earnings and forged documents to claim that Nimisha Priya was his wife. He also confiscated her travel documents and did not allow her to leave the country amid the civil war.
In 2017, Nimisha Priya and another nurse, Hannan, tried to sedate Mahdi to get her documents back. But Mahdi died of overdose. Following this, they dismembered his body and hid it in a water tank. Following this, they were arrested.
Nimisha Priya was sentenced to death by a trial court in 2020. The verdict was upheld by the country's Supreme Judicial Council in November 2023 and the capital punishment was approved by Yemen President Rashad al-Alimi.
The nurse's mother Prema Kumari has been staying in Yemen capital Sanaa to negotiate the blood money with the victim's family. However, the negotiations have reached a dead end in September.
