Nurse’s execution cancellation claim inaccurate: MEA

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

Sources in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) dismissed the Grand Mufti’s assertion that Priya’s death sentence had been overturned in Yemen.

On Monday, the Grand Mufti claimed in a statement that the death sentence of Indian national Nimisha Priya had been completely overturned. However, he acknowledged that his office had not yet received any official written communication from Yemeni authorities confirming the decision.

Priya, a 37-year-old nurse from Kerala, was convicted in 2017 of murdering a Yemeni national, Mahdi, and was sentenced to death in 2018. Her execution, initially scheduled for July 16 this year, was postponed.

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

The Grand Mufti’s office also claimed that several key decisions regarding the case were taken during the meeting, though further deliberations are expected.