Terminally-ill Pakistani on death row in Indonesia passes away

Pakistani national on death row in Indonesia Zulfiqar Ali, who was said to have been 'wrongly convicted' in a drugs case, passed away on Thursday.

Earlier during the day, Ali was shifted to an Intensive Care Unit and requests were being made to shift him to Pakistan.

Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), a human rights firm which provides pro-bono legal advice, representation, and investigative services to the most vulnerable prisoners, had requested Pakistan's premier to urge Indonesia President Joko Widodo to pardon Zulfiqar in light of his terminal illness at the earliest.

“The Government of Pakistan owes it to Zulfiqar to bring him home, especially after the Indonesian President promised us his safe home. Now he is in the ICU with only a few hours to live. We cannot save his life but we can remove his wrongful conviction so he can die a free man. A promise is a promise,” remarked JPP Executive Director Sarah Belal earlier during the day. 

"It is with the heaviest heart that we announce the passing away of Zulfiqar Ali. A Pakistani citizen who has been declared innocent for 8 years, and been innocent since the moment he was arrested. He is mourned by his family and lawyers who fought for his life until the very end," JPP tweeted.

Case history

A father of five from Mughalpura area of Lahore, 53-year-old Zulfiqar has been languishing in an Indonesian prison for almost 14 years. He was arrested in November 2004 after his flatmate was caught with 300 grams of heroin in Jakarta, a city that he wasn’t even in at the time.

He was then charged in the case and sentenced to death.

His lawyers say he is innocent and have alleged serious violations of due process at every stage of the trial and appeal process. 

Zulfiqar was diagnosed with stage four liver cancer in December 2017 and has also been suffering from chronic liver cirrhosis and Diabetes Mellitus.

"After being detained for nearly 14 years for a wrongful conviction, Zulfiqar may die in prison despite the overwhelming evidence of his innocence," according to a statement issued by JPP. 

In 2016, Indonesia had halted Ali's execution, Pakistan's ambassador in Jakarta had confirmed. 

Zulfiqar Ali was transferred to Nusakambangan prison island off Java where executions take place, and Indonesian authorities had told Pakistani officials his execution was imminent.

But, speaking to Geo News from Jakarta, Pakistani ambassador to Indonesia M Aqil Nadeem confirmed that Indonesian authorities had halted the execution of the Pakistani citizen.

'Wrongful conviction'

Former president of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, had commissioned an inquiry in 2010 which found Zulfiqar to be innocent. 

The report additionally concluded that Zulfiqar had suffered severe human rights abuses. These findings have been publicly confirmed by one of the members of the inquiry team who authored the report, Professor Hafid Abbas.

Rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have expressed serious concerns about Ali's conviction, alleging it arose out of beatings and torture and he did not have a fair trial.

"During his trial, he described this torture, but the judges allowed the 'confession' to be admitted as evidence. There has been no independent investigation into his allegations," Amnesty had said.