Things are moving forward. Serge Atlaoui, the Frenchman sentenced to death in Indonesia in 2007 for drug trafficking, must be transferred to France on February 4, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, Indonesian Minister of Legal Affairs and Human Rights, said on Friday, “as required by the French government.
France and Indonesia signed an agreement this Friday relating to the transfer to Paris of this 61-year-old Frenchman who has been on death row for 17 years. The agreement was initialed early this afternoon in Jakarta by Yusril Ihza Mahendra and Gérald Darmanin, French Minister of Justice, remotely from Paris, by videoconference.
Details to come on its future
The fate of Serge Atlaoui once he arrives on French soil was also to be specified in the agreement.
“It is obviously a great relief to finally have knowledge of the agreement concluded between France and Indonesia aimed at the transfer of Serge (Atlaoui),” reacted Richard Sédillot, his French lawyer.
An official transfer request on December 19
The signing of the transfer agreement, initially scheduled for Wednesday, was postponed first to Thursday, for scheduling reasons, then to Friday.
-On December 19, France sent Indonesia an official transfer request. Serge Atlaoui 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”.
Strict anti-drug legislation
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.
Swiss
