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After a seven-year wait and multiple court battles in India, Ms Prema Kumari, a senior citizen from Kerala, finally met her daughter Nimisha Priya, a nurse who is on death row in a Yemeni prison.
Priya’s India-based lawyer Subhash Chandran said the mother-daughter duo met at the jail in Sana’a, Yemen’s capital, on Wednesday afternoon.
He told news channel Wion that the jail authorities permitted the mother-daughter duo to spend a few hours together and even allowed them to have lunch on the premises.
Kerala-native Priya was convicted of the 2017 murder of local man Talal Abdo Mahdi.
The daughter of a domestic helper, she went to Yemen in 2008 and initially worked as a nurse in a government-run hospital in Sanaa, but later quit her low-paying job to start her own clinic in 2014.
As the law in Yemen mandated her to have a local partner, she opened the clinic jointly with Mr Mahdi, a local store owner.
But her lawyer said the Yemeni later subjected her to physical and mental abuse and confiscated her passport.
In a desperate bid to escape the abuse and flee, Priya reportedly drugged Mr Mahdi, which is suspected to have led to his death.
The case got further complicated after Mr Mahdi’s chopped-up body was found by the authorities in a water tank. Priya was found guilty of murder.
Her lawyer maintains that she was responsible only for drugging the abuser, and that she is not aware of what transpired after.
In November, Yemen’s Supreme Judicial Council rejected her appeal, clearing the way for her execution.
Priya’s family had been unable to travel to Yemen earlier since a 2017 Indian government ban on citizens travelling there remains, and those needing to travel need special permission.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs had rejected their request, saying Delhi didn’t have a diplomatic presence in Yemen to ensure their safety.
The lobby group Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council then filed a petition in the Delhi high court, seeking permission for Priya’s mother and daughter to travel to Sana’a. The court allowed them to travel but said the Indian government would not be liable if anything goes wrong.
Sana’a is controlled by Houthi rebels who have been locked in a prolonged civil war with Yemen’s government, which is based in the southern city of Aden. India does not recognise the Houthis, so a trip to Yemen for Indian citizens could be fraught with dangers.
The BBC reported that Priya’s husband Tomy Thomas and 11-year-old daughter Mishal are also in Sana’a, accompanied by Mr Samuel Jerome Bhaskaran, a member of the Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council, which has been attempting to get Priya released from jail.
On Monday, Ms Kumari and Mr Samuel undertook an overnight car journey from Aden to Sana’a and reached the Houthi-controlled region on Tuesday, reported Wion.
With the support of Indian diplomatic representatives, they completed the formalities and met Priya on April 24.
In a WhatsApp message shared with the council, Mr Samuel termed the mother-daughter reunion as an “emotional” moment.
“They were allowed to stay together for some time as we went out and brought lunch for both of them,” he said.
Lawyer Chandran told Wion that the mother is now making attempts to meet the family of Mr Mahdi and plead for mercy.
This is a possibility, owing to the concept of “diyah” or “blood money”, which is practised in Islamic Sharia Law. Diyah is the compensation paid by the perpetrator’s family, as demanded by the victim’s family.
Last December, Ms Kumari told the BBC that she wanted to travel to Yemen to seek “forgiveness” from Mr Mahdi’s family.
“I will apologise to them, I’ll tell them, take my life, but please spare my daughter. Nimisha has a young daughter who needs her mother,” Ms Kumari said.
Recently, thousands of people from Kerala and even non-resident Malayalees crowdfunded Rs 34 crore ($5.5 million) to pay “diyah” and free Malayalee Abdul Rahim, who had been on death row in Saudi Arabia.
Rahim is said to have accidentally caused the death of a disabled child who was under his care.
“I will apologise to them, I’ll tell them, take my life, but please spare my daughter.”
