The government told the Supreme Court on Monday that it was making “all possible efforts” to save Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya, who is scheduled to be executed in Yemen on July 16 for murder charges, but added that “nothing much can be done”.
The government’s submission came during a hearing in the Supreme Court on a plea seeking direction to the Centre to use diplomatic channels to save her.“All possible efforts are being made, but nothing much can be done. Not much can be done as far as Yemen is concerned,” Attorney-General R Venkataramani said in the court.
The matter will be heard next on Friday.
38-year-old Nimisha Priya hailed from Kerala’s Palakkad district and was convicted of murdering her Yemeni business partner in 2017. She was awarded a death sentence in 2020. Her final appeal was dismissed in 2023. Priya is currently lodged in a jail in Yemen’s capital, Sana’a.An organisation in India — Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council, which is providing legal support to help the nurse — had moved the Supreme Court. The matter was initially mentioned for an urgent hearing on July 10, as advocate Subhash Chandran KR pleaded that diplomatic channels have to be used at the earliest to save the nurse.
