Terminally-ill Pakistani death row prisoner in Indonesia, Zulfiqar Ali has passed away, revealed in a statement by Justice Project Pakistan (JPP) on Thursday.
As per reports by the JPP, 54-year-old Zulfiqar Ali who was said to have been ‘wrongfully convicted’ in a drugs case in Indonesian capital Jakarta, was suffering from liver cancer, which had been diagnosed in 2017.
"Zulfiqar, 54, died from liver cancer which he had been diagnosed with in Dec 2017. He leaves behind 5 children and his wife, Siti. His mother, based in Lahore, was unable to fly to Jakarta to meet her son for the final time," read the JPP statement.
The news of Zulfiqar’s passing had come hours after he was moved to an Indonesian hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU), earlier today.
The JPP had filed an urgent appeal, soon after he was admitted in the ICU, indicating that Zulfiqar had only hours to live.
Regarding the detainment, the Foreign Office of Pakistan had stated the government had been making constant attempts for Zulfiqar’s admission back into the country and presently, the family of the deceased is in coordination with the Pakistan Embassy in Jakarta to bring back his body to Pakistan.
The 54-year-old who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer during his period of detainment had spent nearly 14 years behind bars, after he was wrongfully arrested in November 2004 when his flat mate was found with 300 grams of heroin in Jakarta, where Zulfiqar had not been present in at that time.