Indonesia and France: agreement signed for a death row inmate

Indonesia and France signed an agreement on Friday providing for the transfer to Paris of Serge Atlaoui, a 61-year-old Frenchman sentenced to death in Indonesia in 2007 for drug trafficking, announced Yusril Ihza Mahendra, Indonesian Minister of Affairs. legal and human rights.

“We have just signed a technical agreement between the Indonesian government and the French Republic (…) to transfer a French citizen named Serge Atlaoui,” declared Mr. Yusril during a press briefing, in the presence of the ambassador of France in Indonesia, Fabien Penone.

Mr. Penone thanked Mr. Yusril “infinitely” “on behalf of the French authorities” for the decision to authorize Mr. Atlaoui’s transfer.

The agreement was initialed early in the afternoon in Jakarta by Mr. Yusril and by Gérald Darmanin, French Minister of Justice, remotely from Paris, by videoconference.

The two governments will now finalize the details of his repatriation, which will take place on February 4 at the request of the French government, Mr. Yusril told AFP on Friday.

The fate of Mr. Atlaoui once he arrives on French soil was also to be specified in the agreement.

The signing was postponed

Initially scheduled for Wednesday, the signing of the agreement was postponed first to Thursday, for scheduling reasons, according to a source close to the discussions, then to Friday.

“It is obviously a great relief to finally have knowledge of the agreement concluded between France and Indonesia and aimed at the transfer of Serge (Atlaoui)”, reacted for AFP Richard Sédillot, his French lawyer.

“These last few days have been difficult, since the conclusion of the agreement has been postponed several times,” he added, from France, indicating that he would “now continue in France (his) assistance to Serge”.

On December 19, France sent Indonesia an official request of transfer by M. Atlaoui.

Arrested in 2005 in a factory

Mr. Atlaoui was arrested in 2005 in a factory where dozens of kilos of drugs were discovered, on the outskirts 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.

Call pending

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.

“We are delighted with this transfer decision initiated by the Indonesian authorities and to know that Serge Atlaoui can now return to France after everything he has experienced over the last 20 years,” commented Raphaël Chenuil-Hazan, general director of the French association Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM), in a reaction sent to AFP.

Mr. Atlaoui “has very largely served his sentence and well beyond that, we expect from France towards him an act of clemency and humanity commensurate with the symbol he represented in the international movement against the death penalty “, he added.

530 sentenced to death in the country

Indonesia currently has at least 530 convicts on death row, according to rights group Kontras, citing official data.

Among them, more than 90 foreigners, including at least one woman, according to the Ministry of Immigration and Correctional Services.

A 39-year-old Filipina, Mary Jane Veloso, arrested in 2010 and also sentenced to death for drug trafficking, was repatriated to the Philippines in mid-December, after an agreement between the two countries.

Another Frenchman, Félix Dorfin, arrested on the tourist island of Lombok, was sentenced, beyond requisitions, to the death penalty in 2019, also for drug trafficking which he has always denied.

The sentence was later commuted to a 19-year prison term which he is currently serving.

According to the NGO ECPM, whose headquarters are in Paris, in addition to Mr. Atlaoui, at least four French people are currently sentenced to death around the world: two men in Morocco, one in China and a woman in Algeria.

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