The welder was sentenced to death in Indonesia for drug trafficking which he has always contested. Paris requested to transfer the prisoner to France.
Sentenced to the death penalty in Indonesia, the ordeal of Frenchman Serge Atlaoui could be coming to an end. He was sentenced to death in 2007 in Indonesia for drug trafficking which he always contested, in a country where anti-drug legislation is one of the strictest in the world. According to Jakarta, through a letter, the French Minister of Justice requested “a request for the transfer of the French prisoner named Serge Atlaoui”.
This 60-year-old welder was arrested in 2005 in a factory where drugs were discovered. The Indonesian authorities had accused him of being a “chemist”. He denied it, saying that he had only installed industrial machines in what he believed to be an acrylic factory. Initially sentenced to life in prison, the Supreme Court of Indonesia increased the sentence, sentencing him to the death penalty on appeal.
He was due to be executed alongside eight others in 2015, but was granted a temporary reprieve after Paris stepped up pressure. Serge Atlaoui was detained for a long time on the island of Nusakambangan, nicknamed “Alcatraz” Indonesian. He was then transferred to Tangerang, a city west of Jakarta, in 2015.
530 people currently sentenced to death
Thursday, November 28, Indonesian Foreign Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra announced that he was in discussions with the Philippines, Australia and France with a view to repatriating several prisoners. He said he hoped these transfers could be made by “the end of December”. Indonesia currently has 530 convicts on death row, including 88 foreigners, according to rights NGO Kontras. The last executions in Indonesia date back to 2016: an Indonesian and three Nigerians convicted of drug trafficking were shot by a firing squad.
Another Frenchman, Félix Dorfin, arrested on the tourist island of Lombok, was sentenced to death in 2019, also for drug trafficking that he has always denied. The sentence was later commuted to a 19-year prison term, which he is currently serving. Michaël Blanc, a third Frenchman, was also sentenced to life imprisonment after being arrested on the island of Bali in 1999 for drug trafficking. His sentence was reduced to 20 years in prison. He was finally granted parole and was able to return to France in 2018.
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