‘Blood Money’ Reports Jeopardise Nimisha Priya’s Pardon? Social Worker Says Victim’s Family Ang

The efforts to save Nimisha Priya—sentenced to death in Yemen for the killing of her husband, Talal Abdo Mehdi, whom she had accused of harassment—may have been hindered by media reports highlighting the offer of ‘blood money’ to his family in exchange for a pardon. Samuel Jerome, who is a social worker in Yemen, told NDTV that Mehdi’s brother was angry after the media reports seemed to show the family as more interested in the money than justice. Jerome, however, said that he is working to repair and restore relations with Mehdi’s family.

Jerome, speaking to NDTV, said that his relationship with the victim’s family had been built, brick by brick, over the past eight years. “… slow and steady, during every court hearing I used to go, to talk to him (the brother). I used to shake hands and, you know, meet like this. That is how I built trust.”

“Now yesterday, unfortunately, because of all the things that came up in the media… I mean, we had a setback (when) the brother posted he was absolutely not interested in anything,” he said, as quoted by NDTV.

The execution of Nimisha Priya had been postponed on Tuesday afternoon. There were reports that Mehdi’s brother had been persuaded to stay with the death sentence. There were also reports that a ‘top’ cleric from Kerala, the Grand Mufti Sheikh Abubakar Ahmad, had played a key role.

According to an NDTV report, no new date has been announced by the Yemeni authorities regarding Priya’s death sentence.

Meanwhile, the Indian government has continued its efforts to save Nimisha Priya. However, Attorney General R. Venkataramani told the Supreme Court on Monday, “There is a point till which we can go… and we have reached it,” reports NDTV.