France and Indonesia must sign on Friday January 24, 2025 an agreement on the transfer to Paris by Serge Atlaoui, a Frenchman sentenced to death in Indonesia for drug trafficking. Originally from Metz in Moselle, he has been in prison since 2005.
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Serge Atlaoui, originally from Metz in Moselle, aged 61, must be transferred on February 4 to France. “He is necessarily relieved, he is very very happy. You imagine, he may finally be able to return to his country”said Richard Sédillot his lawyer, joined by phone by France 3 Lorraine. “But I can't talk about his state of health. He will tell him about it on his return.”
-Serge Atlaoui was arrested twenty years ago in the suburbs of Jakarta, in a factory where drugs had been discovered. The authorities accused him of being a “chemist”. “The agreement must be signed Friday January 24, 2025 at the beginning of the afternoon in Jakarta by Mr. Yusril and by Gérald Darmanin, French Minister of Justice, from Paris, by videoconferencing”a source close to negotiations told AFP.
Ansanan welder, father of four, he always defended himself from being a drug trafficker, saying “That he had only established industrial machines in what he thought was an acrylic factory”.
Sentenced to life prison, he had seen the Supreme Court weighs down the sentence and sentenced it to capital punishment on appeal. It was to be executed in 2015, but obtained a stay after Paris intensified the pressure. Indonesian authorities who have agreed to let an unanswered call take its course.
Sick and transferred to Salemba prison in Jakarta, he followed treatment in a hospital in the capital every week.
According to the NGO together against the death penalty (ECPM), in addition to Serge Atlaoui, at least four French are currently sentenced to death in the world: two men in Morocco, one in China as well as a woman in Algeria.
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