H

aving escaped the firing squad once, French death row inmate Serge Atlaoui is on the list again after the State Administrative Court (PTUN) rejected his last-ditch appeal for clemency on Monday.

Presiding judge Ujang Abdullah said in the ruling that he had no authority to overturn the President'€™s decision on the matter.

'€œWe reject the challenge by the challenger,'€ he told the court.

Atlaoui, 51, was crossed off a list of convicts to be executed along with Bali Nine duo Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran in April because he filed a lawsuit to challenge President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo'€™s refusal to grant him clemency.

The lawsuit was lodged on the grounds that the President unilaterally rejected the pleas of all drug felons on death row rather than considering the merits of each case.

In his verdict, the presiding judge reasoned that granting clemency was the prerogative of the President.

The police busted Atlaoui when they raided a secret factory producing ecstasy in Tangerang, Banten, in 2005, with authorities accusing him of being a '€œchemist'€ at the site.

The French citizen was subsequently convicted in 2007 of possessing 138 kilograms of shabu-shabu (crystal methamphetamine), 290 kilograms of ketamine and 316 drums of precursor substances.

Atlaoui'€™s lawyer, Nancy Yulian, said that she did not know whether her client would pursue other legal options or not. '€œWe will inform the family and we will think of another legal way. We don'€™t know yet,'€ she said.

Nancy added that she was disappointed with the result, saying '€œfrom the beginning, we have known that he didn'€™t do anything wrong'€.

Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO) spokesman Tony Spontana, meanwhile, said that Atlaoui had exhausted all legal avenues.

'€œTherefore, the execution will definitely go ahead, but for sure it will not happen in the near future,'€ he told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Tony added that Atlaoui would not be put to death during Ramadhan in respect to the Islamic holy month, which will end in mid-July. '€œMost definitely not during the Ramadan month. It wouldn'€™t be wise to do that during the month,'€ he said.

Moreover, Tony said that the AGO would have to sort out the documents for other death row inmates so that Atlaoui could be executed along with others.

'€œWe still have around 60 convicts on death row, but we have to make sure who is ready [to be executed], such as those who have no ongoing legal processes,'€ he said. '€œIf there are such convicts, we could execute them all at once. It'€™s more efficient that way.'€

The impending execution of Atlaoui is likely to trigger an angry response from the French government.

France'€™s European Affairs Minister Harlem Desir said '€œthe whole of the French diplomatic service'€ was being mobilized to save Atlaoui.

If put to death, Atlaoui would be the first Frenchman to be executed anywhere in nearly 40 years.

Drug laws in Indonesia are among the world'€™s toughest. Under Jokowi'€™s term, Indonesia has executed 14 convicts, mostly foreign citizens, so far this year.