MEA calls Indian Grand Mufti's claim on Nimisha Priya's death sentence 'inaccurate'

The government has refuted as “inaccurate” the recent claims made by ‘Grand Mufti of India’ Kanthapuram A P Abubakar Musliyar regarding the death sentence of Indian nurse Nimisha Priya, sources said on Tuesday.

Sources from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) dismissed the Grand Mufti’s assertion concerning Nimisha Priya’s death sentence.

On Monday, the Grand Mufti claimed in a statement that the death sentence of Indian national Nimisha Priya had been completely overturned in Yemen. However, he acknowledged that his office had yet to receive any official written communication from Yemeni authorities confirming the decision.

Priya, a 37-year-old nurse from Kerala, was convicted in 2017 of killing a Yemeni national named Mahdi and sentenced to death in 2018. She was scheduled for execution on July 16 this year, but it was postponed.

It was earlier reported that the decision to completely overturn her death sentence was made during a high-level meeting in Sana’a, where senior Yemeni scholars — selected by Sheikh Umar Hafeel Thangal at the request of the Indian Grand Mufti — held talks with Northern Yemen’s rulers and international diplomats.

Musliyar’s office further claimed that some key decisions related to the case were made during the meeting, though further deliberations are expected.