Indian nurse faces execution in Yemen: Nimisha Priya to be hanged on July 16, say reports

Indian nurse Nimisha Priya , convicted of murdering a Yemeni citizen, is scheduled to be executed in Yemen on July 16, as per several media reports.

Priya, 37, originally from Kerala’s Palakkad district, was sentenced to death for the 2017 murder of Yemeni national Talal Abdo Mehdi , who reportedly withheld her passport. According to court findings, Priya allegedly sedated Talal in an attempt to retrieve the document, but the dosage proved fatal. She and a Yemeni colleague, Hanan, then dismembered the body and disposed of it in a water tank, media reports said.

Meanwhile, ANI quoted sources related to matter as saying, "Nimisha Priya was convicted for the crime of murder in Yemen in June 2018 and the local court handed out death sentence to her. We have been closely following the matter since then. We have been in regular touch with local authorities and her family members and rendered all possible assistance. We continue to closely follow the matter."

Case under Houthi jurisdiction
News agency PTI earlier reported that the Yemeni embassy had clarified the case has been handled primarily by the Houthi militia , which controls Sana’a, where Priya is currently imprisoned.

Priya was found guilty by a trial court in 2017. Her death sentence was upheld in 2024 by Yemen’s Supreme Judicial Council, and later approved by President Rashad al-Alimi.