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Pakistan losing hope of saving Pakistani drug convict
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A truck carrying funeral supplies landed on the Nusakambangan prison island in Cilacap, Central Java, on Wednesday morning as a third round of executions of drugs convicts is scheduled to take place on Friday. (JP/Agus Maryono)
P
akistan is continuing its pleas to the Indonesian government to postpone the execution of a possibly innocent Pakistani citizen who is on death row.
"If we go by the information that has been conveyed to us, most likely Mr. Zulfiqar Ali would be executed on Friday," Pakistani Ambassador to Indonesia Aqil Naseem said on Wednesday, referring to a notification the embassy had received.
Citing findings of an internal investigation that found "serious breaches of a fair trial", Naseem criticized the Indonesian judicial system and insisted on the possibility that Ali was in fact innocent.
"Mr. Zulfiqar Ali was not provided the opportunity of a fair trial. [Furthermore], prosecutors asked for a life sentence and the judge went ahead and gave them the death penalty," Naseem said, pointing out the peculiar approach of the court.
The ambassador was referring to the findings of an investigation conducted by a team from the Law and Human Rights Ministry in 2010 that was presented by National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) commissioner Hafid Abbas.
The results had found that Ali may be innocent. Naseem urged the government to take into consideration the new evidence and review the case. "And if a review finds him guilty, then we would completely respect the Indonesian law," Naseem said.
The government seems set to carry out the executions shortly, as evidenced by a number of measures taken to prepare for them on the Nusakambangan prison island, Cilacap, Central Java. (bbn)
