A Kerala nurse, Nimisha Priya, who is now on the death row in Yemen, cheated the execution, but her future prospects are very vague. There are two very strong concepts of Islamic law that stand at the center of her destiny: qisas and diyya. Although she was momentarily lucky, she now lives at the mercy of the family of the victim because their choice is now between revenge and mercy.
Nimisha was sentenced to the murder of her Yemeni business partner, Talal Abdo Mahdi, in 2017. Reports have indicated that she drugged him to regain her passport, which he was withholding. The sedative, however, caused him to overdose, thus dying. Those who support her say it was by accident, though, but to the family member of the one killed, his behavior is considered differently.
The brother of the victim, who is a man called Abdelfattah Mahdi, has openly declared against any form of monetary settlement and is insisting on qisas, which is a term in Sharia law meaning retribution, which may imply that of an eye for an eye. This would imply Nimisha will be housed to death based on the Islamic law.
Only just recently, a chance existed that the situation could be solved under the principle of diyya, or blood money, a type of compensation, which is accepted by a family of the victim in exchange for the forgiveness of the accused person. The basis of diyya was based on the concept of forgiveness and money in payment, which gave many in India hope to save the life of Nimisha.
This is, however, complicated by the fact that the family irrevocably insists on qisas. They insist that the killing was not accidental but deliberate, so they are not ready to discuss any payment of damages or amnesty.
With the legal and diplomatic team still trying to find a solution, now her life has been suspended between justice and mercy, retribution and reconciliation, like the terminologies qisas and diyya of the Islamic judicial system of Yemen.
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