ROMEO GACAD / AFP
Frenchman Serge Atlaoui (here on April 1, 2015 in Jakarta) was sentenced to death in Indonesia in 2007 for drug trafficking.
INTERNATIONAL – It’s the beginning of the end of an affair that has lasted for 20 years. France and Indonesia signed an agreement this Friday, January 24, for the transfer to Paris of Serge Atlaoui, a Frenchman sentenced to death in Indonesia in 2007 for drug trafficking.
The signing of the transfer agreement, initially scheduled for Wednesday, was postponed first to Thursday, for scheduling reasons, according to a source close to the discussions, then to Friday. It was finally signed shortly after 3 p.m. (9 a.m. in Paris) by Yusril Ihza Mahendra, Indonesian Minister in charge of Legal Affairs and Human Rights, and the French Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin, by videoconference.
Serge Atlaoui, 61, who has been on death row for 17 years, is due to be transferred to France on February 4, Yusril Ihza Mahendra told AFP.
It was to be executed in 2015
On December 19, France sent Indonesia an official request for the transfer of Serge Atlaoui, Yusril Ihza Mahendra indicated at the end of December.
The Frenchman was arrested in 2005 in a factory where drugs were discovered, in the suburbs of Jakarta, and the authorities accused him of being a “chemist”. The artisan welder from Metz, in the north-east of France, father of four children, has always denied being a drug trafficker, claiming that he had only installed industrial machines in what he believed to be an acrylic factory. The case caused a stir in Indonesia, where anti-drug laws are among the strictest in the world.
-Initially sentenced to life in prison, he saw the Supreme Court increase the sentence and sentence him to death on appeal. He was due to be executed alongside eight other convicts in 2015, but was granted a reprieve after Paris stepped up pressure, with Indonesian authorities agreeing to let a pending appeal take its course.
Sick and transferred to Salemba prison in Jakarta, until recently he underwent treatment every week in a hospital in the capital.
More information to come…
Also see on HuffPost :
Reading this content may result in cookies being placed by the third-party operator who hosts it. Taking into account the choices you have expressed regarding the deposit of cookies, we have blocked the display of this content. If you wish to access it, you must accept the “Third Party Content” category of cookies by clicking on the button below.
Play Video
