The last-minute attempts to stop the planned execution of an Indian nurse in Yemen on July 16 are being made, led by a Sufi scholar there, on the orders of powerful Sunni Muslim leader Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musliyar, said confidential sources here on Tuesday.
A conference between officials of the well-known scholar and Sufi figure Sheikh Habib Umar bin Hafiz, and the relatives of Talal Abdo Mahdi — the Yemeni national allegedly murdered by nurse Nimisha Priya in 2017 — is set to take place at Dhamar on Tuesday, they added.
The development follows after the 94-year-old Musliyar, who is officially known as Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad and holds the title of Grand Mufti of India, held talks with religious authorities in Yemen.
The meeting with the family will take place on Tuesday at 10 am, Yemeni local time.
Kanthapuram's office reported that a close family member of deceased Talal — who is the Hodeidah State Court Chief Justice and a member of the Yemeni Shura Council as well — has reached Dhamar, Talal's native town, to participate in today's negotiations, at the recommendation of Sheikh Habib Umar.
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"The fact that he belongs to Sheikh Habib Umar's Sufi fraternity and is son of another Sufi elder leader gives a lot of hope. Apart from persuading the family, he is also to meet the Attorney General in order to begin urgent steps to postpone tomorrow's execution," it read.
"We consider the family's agreement to negotiate with the Sufi spiritual leader's representatives as a positive sign towards our efforts to suspend the planned execution for the time being," a source said.
Talal's murder is not only an emotional case for the family, but also among the tribes and the people of the Dhamar province, sources said.
That is why no one had been able to make contact with the family up to now. "It was only after Kanthapuram's intervention that dialogue with the family was possible for the first time," they said.
The family were willing to go for the talks after the advice of Sheikh Habib Umar bin Hafiz.
"Today's deliberation is centered on taking a final call on whether to accept blood money. While attempts are being made to persuade the family, Kanthapuram has also sought the Yemeni authorities to put on hold for a temporary period of time the July 16 execution -- a plea the Yemeni government will likely consider today," a source stated.
Nimisha Priya, a nurse from Palakkad district of Kerala, is scheduled to be executed on July 16 for the killing of Mahdi, her Yemeni business associate.
She was given the death sentence in 2020 and her last appeal was dismissed in 2023.
She is now lodged in a jail in Sanaa, Yemen's capital city. The Centre on Monday had told the Supreme Court that the government could "do nothing much" in the matter.
Attorney General R Venkataramani had updated a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta that the government was making the "utmost possible. The Government of India is trying its best," Venkataramani stated, "and has also spoken to some sheikhs who are very influential persons there."
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