Village of nurse on Yemen death row prays for miracle

KOCHI: Vinitha Radhakrishnan's long vigil for her childhood friend Nimisha Priya teeters on the edge of desperation at the thought of what July 16 might bring.

That's the date set by Yemen to execute the 37-year-old expat nurse from Kerala, convicted in 2018 of murdering her Yemeni business partner and kept on death row at the central prison in Sana'a since. It's a reality Vinitha and everyone else in Poonkayam village of Palakkad district still haven't reconciled to.

"We can never imagine Nimisha killing someone," Vinitha said as the clock ticked on the fate of the "honest, well-mannered girl" who once walked the corridors of Dhathri Girls' High School in Kollengode with her.

Poonkayam hasn't given up hope, though. Vinitha believes "a last-minute reprieve through govt intervention" could still happen. Nimisha's husband Tomy, a daily-wage worker and occasional autorickshaw driver at Thodupuzha in Idukki, prays for a breakthrough in the campaign to reunite his wife with their 12-year-old daughter, Michele, and her mother, Prema Kumari.

"I can't bear the thought of my daughter losing her mother. All these years, I knocked on every door possible to save Nimisha, but nothing has worked so far. My earnest plea to the Indian govt is to step in immediately," Tomy said.

Michele lives in a school hostel in Kothamangalam. During Nimisha's weekly permitted phone calls or chats from prison, Tomy updates her on the initiatives to secure her release. He last spoke to his wife a week ago.

Nimisha's mother is currently in Yemen for negotiations with tribal leaders and the victim's family to secure her release, hoping that the community's high regard for women would make them accept offers of "blood money".

Nimisha was convicted of killing Talal Abdo Mahdi, with whom she had started a private clinic in Sana'a, in retaliation for allegedly torturing her and seizing her passport. A trial court pronounced the death sentence, that an appeals court upheld.

Nimisha had travelled to Yemen along with Tomy in 2012, just a year after their marriage. After Michele was born, father and daughter returned home in 2014 due to the civil war in Yemen, while Nimisha stayed back to run their clinic in Sana'a.

As the execution date draws near, the Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council has stepped up efforts to start negotiation talks with Talal's kin. Activist Samuel Jerome is expected to reach Sana'a Thursday in a last-ditch attempt to seek pardon.