JAKARTA: The execution of Pakistani death row prisoner, Zulfiqar Ali, accused for drug smuggling in Indonesia has been halted, Pakistan’s ambassador in Jakarta confirmed on Friday.
Zulfiqar Ali was among the 14 drug convicts who were shifted to the firing squad at an island outside Jakarta where his execution was stopped at the last moment.
The family and relatives of Zulfiqar had been asking for mercy and protesting outside the Indonesian embassy in order to highlight Zulfiqar’s innocence. The relatives and friends of Zulfiqar who had gathered for a protest outside Ali’s residence back home in Lahore broke out into celebrations upon hearing the news of his execution being halted.
Zulfiqar had filed a clemency appeal to the Indonesian president a day earlier. It is pertinent to mention that Syed Zulfiqar Ali, a Pakistani national, was arrested on drug trafficking charges from Bogor, Indonesia, in November 2004. The District Court awarded him death sentence in 2005 and the higher court upheld the decision of the district court in 2006.
The charges were framed against Zulfiqar Ali on the basis of a statement given by a single witness, who was himself sentenced to death. Zulfiqar Ali’s two appeals for judicial review, first in 2008 and again in 2013, were turned down and he had filed a clemency appeal with the Indonesian president.
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