Nothing Much Govt Can Do: Centre Tells Supreme Court On Nimisha Priya’s Execution In Yemen

The Central government on Monday briefed the Supreme Court on the Nimisha Priya case and stated that ‘there is nothing much the government can do’ to save the Kerala Nurse on death row in Yemen.

Attorney General of India R Venkataramani, the topmost law officer of the Centre, appeared before a Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta.

“There is nothing much the government can do! Looking at the sensitivity of Yemen, the country is not diplomatically recognised. There is a point till which the Government of India can go, and we have reached that,” he told the Apex court.

The Attorney General (AG) pointed out that the government did not want to further complicate the case by going public and was taking ‘utmost possible efforts’ to rescue the Indian National from the gallows.

The government also sent a request to Yemeni prosecution authorities to halt the execution of the sentence, but it did not yield positive results.

“We got an informal communication that execution would put in abeyance, but we do not know if it will work out,” AG Venkataramani said.

A Bench led by Justice Nath heard a plea from the ‘Save Nimisha Priya Action Council’ seeking a directive to the External Affairs Ministry to use diplomatic channels to halt Nimisha Priya’s execution.

The plea, referring to Sharia Law, stated that the death penalty could negotiated with the payment of ‘diya (blood money)’ to the victim’s family.

Nimisha Priya is facing death penalty for murder

Nimisha Priya, a Nurse from Kerala, sentenced to death for the murder of a Yemeni national, Talal Abdo Mehd. She has been in prison for the last three years.

As per the media reports, Priya will tentatively executed on Wednesday, following the approval of the Yemeni President Rashad al-Alimi.

The Supreme Court, expressing its inability to issue an order to stop the execution in a foreign land, scheduled the case for the next hearing on July 18 and directed the Centre to file a fresh status report on that date.

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