Delhi HC allows Kerala woman to travel to Yemen to save daughter from being hanged

The court took note of the Centre’s submission that India does not have diplomatic ties with the trouble-torn country.

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Tuesday permitted the mother of a Kerala woman, who is on death row in Yemen for killing a Yemeni national, to travel to the West Asian country to negotiate about blood money with the victim’s family and save her daughter from the gallows.

Justice Subramonium Prasad directed the Centre to relax its 2017 notification, which barred Indian passport holders from travelling to Yemen, for the petitioner subject to her filing an affidavit that she will travel with another person to the restive nation for negotiating her daughter’s release at her own risk and responsibility without any liability to the Government of India or the state government concerned.

The high court took note of the Centre’s submission that India does not have diplomatic ties with Yemen and it has closed down its embassy there, and that no international treaty is applicable in that country in the present scenario.

The high court was hearing a plea by Prema Kumari, the mother of Nimisha Priya, seeking facilitation of her travel as well as of three others to Yemen to negotiate with the victim’s family about paying blood money to save her daughter.

Blood money refers to the compensation paid by offenders or their kin to the family of a murder victim.

Yemen’s Supreme Court had on November 13 dismissed the appeal of Nimisha Priya, who was working as a nurse in the West Asian country, against her sentence.

Priya has been convicted of murdering Talal Abdo Mahdi, who died in July 2017, after she injected him with sedatives in order to get back her passport from his possession.

It was alleged that Priya administered him sedatives so she could take back her passport while he was unconscious but he died of an overdose.

Priya’s mother moved the high court earlier this year seeking permission to go to Yemen in spite of a travel ban for Indian nationals and negotiate the blood money to save her daughter.

During the hearing, the Centre’s counsel informed the court that the government had issued a notification on September 26, 2017 stating that an Indian passport holder cannot travel to the troubled nation.

The court noted that clause 3 of the notification gives power to the government to relax its provisions for specific and essential reasons for which a limited time may be granted by the central government at the express request of the applicant who will travel at their own personal risk without any liability to the Government of India.

The court observed orally why should there be so much reluctance on the Centre’s part for a mother making a last attempt to save her daughter from the gallows. Advocate Subhash Chandran K R, who represented the petitioner, told the court that the other person who will be travelling with the mother has a valid visa for Yemen and is working there for more than 24 years.

The petitioner’s counsel said they will be travelling at their own risk.

The court noted that the man’s affidavit said he is ready to travel with Nimisha Priya’s mother to Yemen to help her negotiate with the authorities concerned.

The high court said, “In view of the affidavit, this court is inclined to direct the Union of India to relax the notification of 2017 for the petitioner on her filing an affidavit to the effect that she will be travelling to Yemen with the other person for the purposes of negotiating for the release of her daughter at her own personal risk and responsibility without any liability to the government of India or the state government concerned.” The court asked the petitioner to file an affidavit giving the dates of travel and return and disposed of the petition.

The counsel for Priya’s mother had informed the high court that the Yemen’s Supreme Court, which on November 13 dismissed her appeal and upheld the death sentence, gave her a last option of escaping the gallows by securing a pardon from the victim’s family after paying blood money.

The petitioner’s lawyer had said a letter informing the family about the Supreme Court of Yemen dismissing Priya’s appeal was received on December 1 and her execution can take place anytime.

The ‘Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council’ had approached the high court last year and sought direction to the Centre to “facilitate diplomatic interventions as well as negotiations with the family of the victim on behalf of Nimisha Priya to save her life by paying blood money in accordance with the law of the land in a time-bound manner”.

The petition alleged Mahdi had forged documents to show he and Priya were married and abused and tortured her.

The high court had earlier refused to direct the Centre to negotiate payment of blood money to save Priya’s life but asked it to pursue legal remedies against her conviction.