What Is Qisas, Diyah? Kerala Nurse On Yemen’s Death Row Awaits A Life-Or-Death Verdict Under God’s Law | World News
New Delhi: Malayali nurse Nimisha Priya expects an answer to decide whether he has lived somewhere in a prison cell in Sanaa in Yemen. Clock ticks. The court does not expect the decision. This was already pronounced. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. What he is waiting for is a decision from a Yemeni family that refuses to forgive him.
Cultivating the demands of their demands: QISAS – an eye for blood or blood. In Yemen, where Islamic law defines the justice system, the decision of the family is the only thing that is important.
The story behind the sentence
Nimisha’s life began in Palakkad, Kerala. A educated nurse dreamed of establishing a better life for her family. This dream took him to Yemen in 2008, where he initially found a nurse in a hospital. But what followed was far from the life he dreamed of.
Later, he entered the business partnership with Talal Abdo Mahdi, a man of Yemeni for a clinical business. Reports and explanations from his family and supporters claim that he is now dead, exploited and abused.
They claim that he had taken his passport, harassed him and restricts their movements. His family and campaignists said Nimisha had taken back his passport and tried to return to India, but he was trapped.
The events that led to the death of Talal continue to discuss, but in 2017 his body was torn apart and was arrested after hiding in a water tank. Yemen’s courts found the murder guilty. He was sentenced to death in 2020.
Qisas etc. Dial
Justice in Murder cases in Yemen is not only related to courts and judges. Is personal. Deep personal.
In accordance with the Islamic laws followed by Yemen, two basic principles define criminal justice in murder cases:
1. QISAS – Retribive justice. If someone kills a person, the victim’s family can be executed unless he chooses to forgive.
2. Diyah is usually compensation called “blood money .. If the family accepts, the killer can survive in exchange for a financial solution.
The law gives the victim’s family the right to decide to accept execution (qisas) or compensation. No government, court or diplomat can invalidate this decision.
And in this case, the victim’s family is in crystal clarity. They want qisas. No forgiveness. No blood money. Only death.
‘Can’t bring back our brother’
The victim’s family announced his positions over and over again.
His brother Abdelfattah Mahdi issued an emotional and open message on Facebook. “Our demand is open – qısas and nothing else,” he added, “He cannot bring our brother back. Blood cannot be purchased.”
However, for now, the door was closed with the hope that Nimisha could be saved through the dialect.
Indian human groups and Nimisha’s mother desperately trying to convince the family to rethink. The campaigns collected money and offered to pay any amount requested by Mahdi’s relatives. They said that Nimisha had a young daughter who would be orphaned with her death and begged for human reasons.
But none of them changed the minds of the family.
An executive was delayed, but not canceled
Nimisha’s execution was initially planned on July 16th. However, only days before the planned hanged, Yemen postponed the penalty. Some reports show that Indian diplomatic pressure can help to achieve delay. Others believe that he is in the intervention of a respected clergyman who interviews with all stakeholders.
Whatever the reason, the execution was not canceled – it was only delayed. The danger is still hanging like a guillotine. Now the only thing that can save Nimisha from death is that Talal Mahdi’s family is a heart change.
According to the Yemen law, when a family insists on QISAS, there is no room for negotiation. If they maintain this demand, Nimisha will be executed. The Yemeni state will be committed to the laws to realize it.
Against the religious justice of Yemen, the legal lens of India
The contrast between India’s legal system and Yemens is sharp.
In India, the state deals with murder prosecution. The government decides whether the victim will follow the death penalty, not the family of the victim. Even after a conviction, there are appeals, air conditioning petitions and presidential forgiveness.
But in Yemen, it is the family of the victim with life and death power.
Yemen in 2006, 224-246. In accordance with the articles, he included Qisas and Diyah in the Penal Code. In accordance with these laws, the victim’s heirs may request execution, accept compensation or forgive completely. If the family insists on QISAS, judges cannot intervene. And after the execution is performed, the case is considered closed.
Therefore, even diplomatic intervention has a limited effect. Indian authorities may demand brutality, but only the consent of the family carries weight in accordance with the Yemeni law.
An objection for compassion, a mother’s hope
Nimisha’s mother, family and young girl continues to wait. Human rights activists did not give up. Over time, and perhaps with some compromise movement, they hope that the Mahdi family can accept the conversation.
The Indian government is in contact with local intermediaries through its Embassy in Djibouti (India has no Embassy in Yemen due to the ongoing civil war).
But time is running out. And Nimisha’s life is no longer in the hands of any law, lawyer or judiciary, but in the heart of a mourning family.
This is not only about law, justice or geopolitics. About a woman who once kept a stethoscope and dreamed of a better life and now looking at a loop. About a family with a brutal murder and another family that follows the approach of their daughters approach to death every day. It is related to a system of justice in which the law is step back and allows grief to make the last call. And now, this call is Qısas.
