Time is running out for Nimisha Priya, the nurse from Kerala on death row in Yemen. The date for her execution has been set for July 16; it was communicated by the director general of prosecution to the superintendent of the Sana’a prison where Nimisha is lodged, according to media reports. It seems only a Hail Mary can save her.

That hasn’t stopped hectic negotiations and a frantic race against time.

‘Optimistic’ is how those negotiating on her behalf said they felt. On Friday, Samuel Jerome, an Indian based in Yemen who is on the Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council, a group of around 90 NRIs from some 30 countries and holds the power of attorney for Nimisha’s family, said he is ‘optimistic’ but could not reveal details of the crucial negotiations with the Yemeni representatives.

A day earlier on Thursday, a two-judge Supreme Court bench responded to an urgent petition filled by the Save Nimisha Priya Council and asked the government of India to inform it of the steps it is taking. The next hearing is set for July 14, two days before the scheduled execution.

Nimisha was convicted of murdering Talal Abdo Mahdi, her business partner with whom she had set up a clinic. She says Mahdi was physically, sexually and financially exploiting her, claiming she had married him even though she was already married and had a daughter back home in Kerala.

There was no way for her to return home since Mahdi had withheld her passport. In 2017, she filed a police complaint but was instead arrested and jailed for six days. It was in jail, she says, that a warden suggested sedating........

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