Frenchman Serge Atlaoui sentenced to death in Indonesia: France officially requests his repatriation

The end of the nightmare for Serge Atlaoui? This Frenchman, arrested in 2005 in Indonesia for drug trafficking – which he has always denied – and sentenced to death in 2007 could finally return to France soon. Paris officially requested his “transfer”. “We received an official letter requesting the transfer of Serge Atlaoui on December 19. The letter was sent on behalf of the French Minister of Justice,” said the Indonesian Minister in charge of Legal Affairs and Human Rights. The French embassy in Jakarta did not wish to comment on this announcement.

Serge Atlaoui, aged 61, was arrested in 2005 in a factory where drugs were discovered in the suburbs of Jakarta. Indonesian authorities accuse him of being a “chemist”. This artisan welder from Metz, 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. .

Sentenced to death for drug trafficking

The affair caused a stir in Indonesia where anti-drug laws are one of the strictest in the world. Initially sentenced to life in prison, Serge Atlaoui saw the Supreme Court increase the sentence, condemning him to the death penalty on appeal. He was scheduled to be executed alongside eight others in 2015, but was granted a temporary reprieve. France had intensified the pressure, the Indonesian authorities then agreed to let a pending appeal take its course.

France’s request examined in early January

Due to the end-of-year holidays, the Indonesian authorities have announced that they will “discuss the contents of the letter at the beginning of January”. France sent a first request to Indonesia at the end of November. The French Ministry of Justice then asked Jakarta to obtain a series of documents in order to prepare the official transfer request. Serge Atlaoui’s French lawyer, Mr. Richard Sédillot, indicated that “the idea that his sentence could now be commuted, and that his transfer could then be ordered, constitutes considerable hope.”

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 two women, according to the Ministry of Immigration and Correctional Services.

According to the ECPM association, in addition to Serge Atlaoui, at least four French people, including one woman, are currently sentenced to death around the world: two men sentenced in Morocco and one in China as well as a woman in Algeria. The last capital executions in Indonesia date back to 2016: an Indonesian and three Nigerians, convicted of drug trafficking, were shot.