Zulfiqar Ali- Pakistani National Facing Imminent Execution in IndonesiaZulfiqar Ali

Zulfikar Ali is a Pakistani national who has been death row for drug-related offences in Indonesia for the past 11 years and faces imminent execution by firing squad.

Zulfiqar’s was sentenced to death in June 2005 as an outcome of an unfair trial that violated various provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) acceded to by Indonesia in 2006.  Zulfiqar’s sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2006 and he is expected to be executed at any time in the upcoming days on a notice of 72 hours.

BACKGROUND

Zulfiqar Ali, 52, is a garment businessman from Pakistan who arrived in Indonesia in 2000.  He was arrested from his house in Bagor, West Java province on 21 November 2004. The Indonesian police found 300g of heroin belonging to Guldip Singh.  Guldip Singh named Zulfiqar as a supplier of heroin during police interrogation. However, since then Singh has rescinded his statement claiming that the drugs did not belong to Zulfiqar and that he only named him under severe duress in order to get a lighter sentence.

Zulfiqar had no previous history of arrest or conviction for drug related offences either in Pakistan or in Indonesia.

 

Pre-Trial Detention and Trial in violation of International Standards of Fair Trial  

Zulfiqar was kept under pre-trial detention for 3 months following his arrest out of which he was denied access to a lawyer for one month following his arrest. In that month, he was also held under incommunicado detention by the police for 3 days at his house wherein he alleged he was tortured (see below). This is clearly in violation to Article 14 of the ICCPR that guarantees access to a lawyer not only during the trial but also during immediately upon arrest, during detention, interrogations and preliminary investigation.

Zulfiqar was also denied any access to the Pakistani Embassy in Jakarta during his arrest and detention in violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.   

During the course of his pre-trial detention and trial, at no point was Zulfiqar provided an interpreter, and any assistance that he did receive was in English despite that fact this his first language is Urdu.

 

 

Reliance on Evidence extracted through torture

During his trial, Zulfiqar gave evidence that he was tortured by the police into signing a confession. Zulfiqar testified that he was held at his house for three days where he was beaten so badly by the police that he had to be admitted into a police hospital for seventeen days where he had to undergo kidney and stomach surgery. The costs of the surgery had to be borne by Zulfiqar’s family.  As a result of the torture, Zulfiqar still suffers from poor health and was admitted to the hospital on 16 May 2016.  However, despite the allegations of torture, the Tangerang District Court upheld the validity of the tainted confession.  There has been no independent investigation into his allegation till date.

 

Failure to Consider Key Evidence

Zulfiqar also filed a witness statement by witness, Gurdip Singh, wherein the Singh stated that the drugs did not belong to Zulfiqar and that he had only framed Zulfiqar in order to obtain a lighter sentence. The Tangerang Court however, disregarded the witness statement on the basis that it was not dated.

Zulfikar was found guilty and sentenced to death by the Tangerang District Court, Banten Province on 14 June 2005. This was despite the prosecution requesting for life imprisonment and a 150 million rupiah fine.  Following his conviction,  Zulfiqar appealed to the PT Banten High Court and the Supreme Court were rejected on 20 January 2006 and 16 September 2008, respectively.

On 8th April 2013, Zulfiqar’s lawyer filed a PK on the grounds that there was not sufficient evidence proving Zulfiqar’s guilt and that Zulfiqar had been treated unfairly, haven been given no proper interpreter, and having had a death sentence when many other defendants with greater quantities of drugs got lighter sentences.  Zulfiqar’s PK was, however, rejected on 5th May 2013.

 

Failing Health

Based on prison records, Zulfiqar suffers from Type II Diabetes, hepatitis B and nephrolithiasis. On March 2014 Mr Ali experienced a stroke due to clogging of the artery near the brain. Following the record the doctors concluded that he does not have long to live and recommended that he stay away from physical and mental stress and have regular checkups.

 

INTERNATIONAL OPPOSITION

Various international actors including the Anti Death Penalty Asia Network have called upon the Government of Indonesia to suspend Zulfiqar’s death sentence and conduct a retrial for Zulfiqar in compliance with International standards of fair trial and investigate allegations of torture and other ill treatment that were raised during the trial.

However, Zulfiqar Ali still faces imminent execution any day now on a notice of 72 hours.

 

 

 

Ask Prime Minister Mr. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to #BringItBack

Prime Minister Mr. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, we the undersigned call on you to show mercy to the mentally ill, the physically disabled and juvenile offenders who are currently on death row. We strongly urge you to undertake action to reform our criminal justice system that continues to punish only the most vulnerable members of our society. We demand that until this is done, the Government of Pakistan reinstates the moratorium on the death penalty.

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