New Delhi | India on Thursday said it is in touch with Yemeni authorities as well as certain friendly nations as part of efforts to reach a "mutually agreeable solution" in the case relating to Nimisha Priya, an Indian nurse on death row in Yemen.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the government is making concerted efforts to seek more time for Priya's family to reach some kind of an understanding with the family of the Yemeni man Priya is convicted of killing.
The 38-year-old Indian national's execution was scheduled for July 16, but it was postponed following intervention of Indian officials. She is presently lodged in a jail in Sana'a, the Yemeni capital city that is under the control of Iran-backed Houthis.
"This is a sensitive matter and the government of India has been offering all possible assistance in the case," Jaiswal said at his weekly media briefing.
The nurse, hailing from Kollengode in Kerala's Palakkad district, has been found guilty of murdering a Yemeni citizen in July, 2017. In 2020, a Yemeni court handed her the death sentence and the country's Supreme Judicial Council dismissed her appeal in November 2023.
"We have provided legal assistance and appointed a lawyer to assist the family. We have also arranged regular consular visits and been in constant touch with the local authorities and the family members to resolve the issue.
"This included concerted efforts in recent days to seek more time for the family of Nimisha Priya to reach a mutually agreeable solution with the other party," the MEA spokesperson said.
Jaiswal said local authorities in Yemen have postponed carrying out Priya's sentence that was scheduled for July 16.
"We continue to closely follow the matter and render all possible assistance. We are also in touch with some friendly governments," he said without naming the countries.
India doesn't have any diplomatic presence in Yemen and diplomats in the Indian mission in Saudi Arabia were looking into the matter, it is learnt.
Jaiswal declined to respond to a question on the reported role played by the Grand Mufti, Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musaliyar, in the postponement of Priya's execution.
The Sunni cleric from Kerala said he had spoken to prominent Yemeni scholars on behalf of Priya's family to prevent her execution.
"As far as the role of the entity you mentioned is concerned, I have no information to share," Jaiswal said.
Priya's mother Premakumari travelled to Yemen last year as part of efforts to secure her release.
The Indian side had even explored the option of securing Priya's release through "diyat" or paying "blood money". But that also ran into some problems, it is learnt.
In a related development, the government on Monday informed the Supreme Court that it was doing whatever was "utmost possible" to save the Indian nurse from execution.
It also informed the top court that "nothing much" could be done keeping in view the status of Yemen.
"There is a point up to which the Government of India can go and we have reached that point," attorney general R Venkataramani informed a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta.
The top law officer said the government was keen to save its citizens and was doing "utmost possible" in the matter.
The apex court was hearing a plea seeking a direction to the Centre to use diplomatic channels to save Priya.
