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Death row inmate Serge Atlaoui sits in a Tangerang district court as he files an application for judicial review March 11, 2015 in Tangerang, Indonesia.
INTERNATIONAL – For eighteen years, Serge Atlaoui has lived on death row. This 61-year-old Frenchman was sentenced to death in Indonesia in 2007, a country known for the extreme severity of its anti-drug laws. But France has officially requested its “transfer” to allow him to reach France.
“We received an official letter requesting the transfer of Serge Atlaoui on December 19. It was sent on behalf of the French Minister of Justice”declared this Saturday, December 28, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, the Indonesian Minister in charge of Legal Affairs and Human Rights. “As we are in the end-of-year holiday period, we will discuss the content of the letter in early January,” continued the minister.
If Jakarta responds favorably to Paris' request, it would put an end to years of fighting for the release of this Frenchman, father of four children and originally from Metz. In 2005, then aged 42, the artisan welder arrived near Jakarta to install industrial machines in what he thought was an acrylic factory. A site which turned out to be an ecstasy production laboratory. Arrested by the authorities for drug trafficking, Serge Atlaoui has always denied any involvement in this affair.
A “model prisoner”
He was initially sentenced to life in prison. But in 2007, the Supreme Court increased his sentence, sentencing him to death, along with eight other members of the ” network “ of traffickers.
After several years spent in a high security prison on the island of Nusakambangan, nicknamed the“Indonesian Alcatraz”in southeast Java, Serge Atlaoui is now detained in Salemba Prison, Jakarta. This transfer has the advantage of bringing it closer to a hospital, because the French “is sick”revealed the Indonesian Minister of Human Rights at a press conference on December 3.
Serge Atlaoui “never lost hope, he has unfailing morale because he thinks first of his family and others,” reports Raphaël Chenuil-Hazan, general director of the association Ensemble contre la penalty de mort (ECPM), and who has supported him since 2007. “Hope is the difference between life and death”had precisely confided in 2015 the prisoner in an interview with Republican Lorain.
Behind bars, the welder behaves like a “model prisoner”. In particular, he restored the water network of his prison and also repaired the framework, indicates Raphaël Chenuil-Hazan, who visited him for the last time in November 2023.
The case of Mary Jane Veloso, a sign of hope
After years of uncertainty, a sign of hope is emerging for Serge Atlaoui. At the beginning of November, France contacted Jakarta to obtain documents necessary for an official transfer request for the Frenchman, according to a source close to the matter. Jakarta, for its part, had mentioned possibilities of repatriating prisoners.
This was particularly the case for Mary Jane Veloso, a 39-year-old Filipina sentenced to death in 2010 for drug trafficking. After negotiations, she was repatriated to Manila on December 18. “Serge is of course aware that Mary Jane (Veloso) has been transferred to the Philippines. He is extremely relieved”declared Raphaël Chenuil-Hazan.
Similarly, five Australians arrested in 2005 on the tourist island of Bali for drug trafficking and sentenced to long prison terms were returned to Australia on December 15. These successive releases fuel the hope of a favorable outcome for Serge Atlaoui in the coming weeks.
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