Nimisha Priya death sentence: Who was Talal Abdo Mahdi? Supreme Court agrees to hear case

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear the case of Nimisha Priya, a 37-year-old Indian woman from Kerala who is facing death by execution in Yemen, issuing a notice to the Attorney General of India. In his plea, Nimisha Priya's lawyer sought the Indian government's intervention in saving the woman, mentioning the 'blood money' provision in the country's Sharia law.

Many Islamic countries allow commutation of the death sentence in lieu of a sum of money.

After hearing the counsel, the Supreme Court's vacationbench issued a notice to the AGI and listed the case for hearing on Monday.

Who is Nimisha Priya?

Nimisha Priya was convicted of murder in Yemen in June 2018. A local court later handed her the death sentence. Yemen's Supreme Judicial Council confirmed her death sentence in 2023.

The woman, a nurse by profession, is scheduled to be executed on July 16.

Nimisha worked at a private hospital in Yemen for a few years. Her husband and daughter returned to India in 2014 and couldn't return because of a civil war.

Whom did Nimisha Priya murder?

In 2015, she set up a clinic in Sana with a Yemeni citizen, Talal Abdo Mahdi. The same year.Mahdi accompanied Nimisha Priya to Kerala when she came for a month-long holiday. During the visit, he stole a wedding photograph of Nimisha, which he later manipulated to claim that he was married to her.

Her family claims that Mahdi, the man she murdered, had been harassing her.

"After a while, Nimisha's clinic began. Mahdi manipulated the ownership documents of the clinic. He also began to take money out of her monthly earnings after telling everyone that Nimisha was his wife. Nimisha had alleged that Mahdi had been harassing her and her family for years. Mahdi also seized her passport. This was done to ensure that she would not leave Yemen. He tortured her under the influence of drugs. He threatened her at gunpoint several times. He took all the money from the clinic and her ornaments," her mother was quoted as saying by ANI.

She said in a bid to retrieve her passport from Mehdi, she sedated the victim. However, since he was a substance abuser, the drug didn't work on him. She used a stronger sedative to make him unconscious; however, he died within minutes due to a drug overdose.