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France requests transfer of death row convict held in Indonesia: Senior minister
Indonesia is in discussion with three countries, including France, over the return of several high-profile detainees and aims to transfer the prisoners by the end of December.
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French drug convict and death row prisoner Serge Atlaoui (left) is escorted by police upon his arrival at the Tangerang District Court in Tangerang, Banten on April 1, 2015. France has asked Indonesia to transfer French death row convict Serge Atlaoui, who has been convicted on drug charges since 2005. (AFP/Romeo Gacad)
F
rance has asked Indonesia to transfer a French death row convict, who has been jailed for drug crimes in the country since 2005, a senior minister told AFP on Friday.
Indonesia is in discussion with three countries, including France, over the return of several high-profile detainees and aims to transfer the prisoners by the end of December.
"The French embassy has delivered a letter from France's justice minister to Indonesia's law minister dated Nov. 4 containing a request for the transfer of a French prisoner named Serge Atlaoui," said Coordinating Law, Human Rights, Immigration and Correctional Services Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra.
The French embassy did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Atlaoui, a welder, was arrested in 2005 in a secret drugs factory outside Jakarta, with authorities accusing him of being a "chemist" at the site.
But the father of four has maintained his innocence, claiming that he was installing machinery in what he thought was an acrylics plant.
He was initially sentenced to life in prison but the Supreme Court in 2007 increased the sentence to death on appeal.
Atlaoui was detained at the Nusakambangan prison island in Central Java following the death sentence, but he was transferred to Tangerang, Banten in 2015 ahead of his appeal.
That year, he was due to be executed alongside eight other drug offenders but won a temporary reprieve after Paris stepped up pressure, with Indonesian authorities agreeing to let an outstanding appeal run its course.
In the appeal, Atlaoui's lawyers argued that then-president Joko "Jokowi" Widodo did not properly consider his case as he rejected Atlaoui's plea for clemency, typically a death row convict's last chance to avoid the firing squad.
The court, however, upheld its previous decision that it did not have the jurisdiction to hear a challenge over the clemency plea.
Atlaoui is currently detained in a penitentiary in Jakarta, Yusril said.
Other high-profile detainees that are in discussion to be transferred include Mary Jane Veloso, a Philippine woman who was granted a stay of execution in 2015, and the five remaining members of Australia's "Bali Nine", all convicted on drug charges.
Two from the group were executed by firing squad, one died of cancer and another was released in 2018.
Indonesia has some of the world's toughest drug laws and has executed foreigners in the past.
