Frenchman on death row in Indonesia leaves jail ahead of transfer home

by Eric BERNAUDEAU

A Frenchman on death row in Indonesia since 2007 for drug offenses left prison on Tuesday ahead of his transfer to France, officials told AFP.

Indonesia, which has some of the world's toughest drug laws, has in recent weeks released half a dozen high-profile detainees, including a Filipina mother on death row and the last five members of the so-called "Bali Nine" drug ring.

Serge Atlaoui, 61, was driven from Salemba prison in Jakarta to the city's main airport where he will be handed over to French police officers before boarding a commercial flight to Paris.

In France, he will be presented to prosecutors "and most likely detained while awaiting a decision on the adaptation (of his sentence)", his lawyer Richard Sedillot told AFP.

Jakarta has left it to the French government to grant Atlaoui -- the only Frenchman on death row in Indonesia -- "clemency, amnesty or a reduced sentence".

"Serge is happy and calm", added Sedillot, "but he is going to need a little bit of time to reorganize himself."

His return was made possible after an agreement between the French Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin and his Indonesian counterpart Yusril Ihza Mahendra on January 24.

In the agreement, Jakarta said they had decided not to execute Atlaoui and authorized his return on "humanitarian grounds" because he was ill.

Atlaoui has been receiving weekly medical treatment at a hospital.

- Death penalty appeal -

Atlaoui was arrested in 2005 at a factory in a Jakarta suburb where dozens of kilos (pounds) of drugs were discovered and accused of being a "chemist" by the authorities.

A welder from Metz in northeastern France, the father of four has always denied being a drug trafficker, saying that he was installing machinery in what he thought was an acrylic factory.

"I thought there was something suspicious (about the factory)," Atlaoui told AFP in 2015.

Initially sentenced to life in prison, his sentence was reviewed by the supreme court and changed to death on appeal.

He was due to be executed alongside eight others in 2015, but was granted a reprieve after Paris applied pressure and the Indonesian authorities allowed an outstanding appeal to proceed.

There are currently at least 530 inmates on death row in Indonesia, according to the human rights organization Kontas, referencing official figures.

Among them are 90 foreigners, including at least one woman, according to the Ministry of Immigration and Correction.

The Indonesian government recently signaled it will resume executions, on hiatus since 2016.

In December, Filipina inmate Mary Jane Veloso, who was arrested in 2010 and also sentenced to death for drug trafficking, was returned to her home country after an agreement was reached between both countries.

© Agence France-Presse