Nurse Nimisha Priya Execution: Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan Urges PM Modi to Intervene
Referring to previous correspondence, including a letter dated February 6, the CM urged the Prime Minister to personally take up the matter with the concerned authorities;
Kerala Chief Minister (CM) Pinarayi Vijayan has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, seeking urgent intervention to save the life of Nimisha Priya Tomy Thomas, an Indian national facing execution in Yemen.
In letters dated March 24 and July 10, the CM flagged media reports indicating that the execution of Nimisha Priya has been scheduled for July 16, 2025, following her conviction by a specialized Court in Sana.
The CM stressed that the case deserves "sympathy and intervention at the highest level."
Referring to previous correspondence, including a letter dated February 6, the CM urged the Prime Minister to personally take up the matter with the concerned authorities.
The letter to EAM Jaishankar states that the Indian Embassy must be directed to “intervene in every possible manner” to protect the life of Priya, who was allegedly a teenager at the time of the offence.
The MP also referred to “substantial sympathy and high expectations” expressed in a communication from the Indian Ambassador to Djibouti and cited efforts currently underway for a possible settlement with the victim’s family through the payment of diyya (blood money), as permitted under Yemeni law.
Nimisha Priya, a nurse from Kerala, was convicted of murdering a Yemeni national in 2017. Her family and several civil society groups in India have long campaigned for clemency, asserting that she acted in self-defence and citing her young age at the time of the incident.
In a related news, on July 10, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) had been filed in the Supreme Court by the Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council, urging the Union Government to intervene diplomatically and facilitate negotiations to save Indian nurse Nimisha Priya, who is facing execution in Yemen on July 16, 2025.
The petition highlighted how Nimisha was denied a fair trial, coerced into signing confessional documents in Arabic, and left without meaningful legal representation amid Yemen’s ongoing civil war. Her appeals have since been dismissed by Yemen’s higher courts. The only legal remedy now available under Sharia law is to obtain a pardon from the victim’s family by paying “blood money” (Diyah). However, due to India’s travel ban to Yemen and lack of official diplomatic outreach, no negotiations have taken place.