On a journey fraught with danger to save her daughter on death row

Desperate mother risks life to save daughter on death row in Yemen, navigating legal hurdles for mercy.

Prema Kumari, 57, knows how risky a journey to the war-torn Yemen is. But her desire to somehow rescue her 35-year-old daughter Nimisha Priya, who is on death row at the Central prison in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, is such that she is willing to put her own life on the line. Nimisha remains imprisoned for the alleged murder of a Yemeni national in July 2017.

“I will beg the victim’s family to forgive my daughter and to take my life instead. If everything goes as per plan, I may be able to travel to Yemen next week,” her voice choked with grief over phone from Kizhakkambalam, where she has been working as a domestic help for over six years.

Nimisha’s family is hopeful that she will be able to convince the victim’s family to accept the blood money and save her. She was sentenced to death by a trial court in Sanaa in 2020 and the Yemen’s Supreme Judicial Council had dismissed her appeal in November 2023 while keeping the option of paying blood money open.   

The hurdles before Ms. Kumari’s repeated efforts to travel to Yemen were cleared after the Delhi High Court on a plea filed by her and the ‘Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council’ asked the Centre in December last to relax its 2017 notification, which barred Indian passport holders from travelling to Yemen. She had submitted an affidavit agreeing to travel to Yemen at her own personal risk without any liability to the government.

“She will be accompanied by Samuel Jerome Bhaskaran, a native of Tamil Nadu, who will help her negotiate with the authorities concerned. Mr. Bhaskaran has been working in Yemen for over 24 years. We hope to get the flight tickets ready by next week,” said Subhash Chandran K. R., Supreme Court lawyer, who represented her in the Delhi High Court.

Tomy Thomas, Nimisha’s husband, a daily-wage labourer at Paingottur, Kothamangalam, recalled his conversation with Nimisha over the phone two days ago. “We told her not to lose hope as her mother is expected to meet her soon. I am hopeful,” he said. Their 11-year-old daughter is also eagerly waiting for her mother to return. Mr. Thomas had returned from Yemen along with their daughter following the civil war in Yemen in 2014.

A native of Kollengode in Palakkad district, Nimisha had left for Yemen in 2008 to help her parents, who were daily-wage labourers. She worked in a few hospitals in Yemen before deciding to start her own clinic in 2015. The family said that differences cropped up with Mahdi, her local partner, after she questioned him about the alleged embezzlement of funds. She allegedly injected him with sedatives in an attempt to reclaim her passport that he had confiscated and an overdose resulted in his death.