A Yemen court on Monday deferred the verdict on an appeal filed by Malayali nurse Nimisha Priya against her death sentence in the 2017 murder case of a Yemeni national. This is the second time the verdict is being deferred.
A native of Kerala's Palakkad, Nimisha was found guilty of murdering Talal Abdo Mahdi in 2017, chopping his body into pieces, and disposing them in a water tank. A trial court in Yemen had awarded her death sentence in 2018. Nimisha later submitted a plea stating that she did no receive proper legal aid and that she was physically abused by Talal.
Nimisha is a nurse who was working in Yemen. In 2014, she had sought Talal's help to set up a clinic in Yemen. She approached Talal because according to the country's rules, they needed the help of a Yemeni national to process the license to start a business. He was an acquaintance of Nimisha and her husband Tony who was also working in Yemen at that time. However, Tony had to return to Kerala with their child in 2014 as it was difficult to manage finances.
In 2015, Nimisha started the clinic. But she did not take Talal's help for the license. A man named Abdul Lateer, in whose clinic she was working then, helped with the license and invested money in the clinic for 33 per cent share, the News Minute reported.
Things went downhill after she started earning revenue from the clinic. Talal started interfering and demanded a share of the income. He forged fake marriage documents and told everyone Nimisha was his wife. He started threatening her and physically tortured her. Nimisha has alleged he was a substance abuser. She complained to the police and he was arrested, but let off later. The situation worsened in 2016 and Talal got hold of her passport.
In July 2017, Nimisha injected him with sedatives in order to retrieve her passport. He died within a few minutes due to drug overdose. Nimisha sought the help of Hanan, a nurse who had worked with her. They chopped his body and disposed of it in the water tank, according to reports. Both Hanan and Nimisha were arrested in August 2017. Hanan was sentenced to life imprisonment.
