NORKA urges Union govt to help Indian nurse facing death penalty in Yemen

Nimishapriya Tomy Thomas, was sentenced to death in Yemen on criminal charge, for the murder of a Yemeni national.
Nimishapriya in Yemen jail with Embassy officials
Nimishapriya in Yemen jail with Embassy officials
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Non-Resident Keralities Affairs (NORKA) officials have written to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) requesting the Union government to help welfare groups that have been trying to save Indian nurse Nimishapriya Tomy Thomas, who is facing the death penalty in Yemen. In the letter to MEA, Dr K Ellangovan -the Principal Secretary of Industries and NORKA- has asked for help stating that Kerala government is also keen in providing her legal assistance. NORKA is a department of the Kerala government that addresses grievances of Non-Resident Keralites.

Kerala native Nimishapriya Tomy Thomas, was sentenced to death in Yemen on criminal charge, for the murder of a Yemeni national. The 30-year-old who got no legal help during the trial of the case was sentenced to death by a lower court in Yemen and the same was upheld by a higher court earlier this year. Nimishapriya has maintained that she was only trying to get away from the man who had harassed her for months and taken her passport away.

After her family of daily wage labourers came out seeking help to save Nimishapriya, many Indian nationals rallied in support forming a ‘Save Nimishapriya International Action Council’ to facilitate all the legally possible help to save the nurse from death penalty. The action council is working to chalk out the possibility of providing blood money to the family of the deceased person, so that Nimishapriya could be saved from death penalty.

In the letter, NORKA has urged the Union government to request the Ambassador of Djibouti, who is in charge for Yemen, to coordinate the efforts of the associations willing to contribute towards the blood money.

“This will help the Indian associations to reach Nimishapriya Tomy Thomas and provide her the required relief. The government of Kerala is keen that all legal assistance should be provided to her to prove her case before the Sharia Court,” said Dr Ellangovan in the letter to the Ministry of External Affairs, written on Friday.

It is also learned that the MEA has started the process to appoint a lawyer for Nimishapriya in Yemen under the Indian Community Welfare Fund (ICWF).

The letter to the Union government by NORKA has come as a boost to the action council working to save Nimishapriya by raising the blood money. Meanwhile, representatives of the action council in Yemen including Samuel Jerome and two officials of the Indian Embassy visited Nimishapriya in Yemen jail on Saturday.

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