France demands the extradition of a death row inmate held in Indonesia The Guardian Nigeria news

France has asked Indonesia to hand over a French death row inmate who has been in prison for drug offenses in the Asian country since 2005, a senior Indonesian minister told AFP on Friday.

Indonesia is negotiating with three countries, including France, for the return of several high-profile prisoners and intends to hand them over by the end of December.

“The French embassy forwarded a letter from the French justice minister to the Indonesian justice minister dated November 4 requesting the handover of a French prisoner named Serge Atlaoui,” senior justice and human rights minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra told AFP.

The French embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A French diplomat in Paris admitted that negotiations with Jakarta regarding Atlawi are underway.

“The French authorities are monitoring the situation of Mr. Serge Atlaoui. We are in contact with the Indonesian authorities on this matter,” the diplomat told AFP.

Atlawi, a welder, was arrested in 2005 at a secret drug factory near Jakarta, with authorities accusing him of being the “chemist” at the site.

But the 60-year-old father-of-four insisted he was innocent, claiming he had been installing equipment at a plant he believed was acrylic.

He was initially sentenced to life in prison, but in 2007 the Supreme Court increased the sentence to death on appeal.

Atlawi was held on the island of Nusakambangan in Central Java, known as Indonesia’s “Alcatraz”, after his death sentence, but was transferred to the city of Tangerang, west of Jakarta, in 2015 ahead of his appeal.

He was due to be executed along with eight other drug-related criminals that year, but was granted a temporary reprieve after Paris stepped up pressure and Indonesian authorities agreed to let an appeal remain pending.

– “Significant Hope” –

In the appeal, Atlawi’s lawyers argued that then-President Joko Widodo did not properly handle his case because he rejected Atlawi’s request for clemency — normally the last chance for a death row inmate to avoid execution.

The court, however, upheld its earlier ruling that it had no jurisdiction to hear the clemency appeal.

According to Yusril, Atlawi is currently being held in a prison in Jakarta.

His lawyer, Serge Cedillo, said there was “substantial hope” that Atlaoui’s sentence would be commuted and that his extradition would be granted.

“We hope that the Indonesian authorities will grant France’s request, given that Serge has been detained for almost 20 years and that his behavior during his imprisonment has always been impeccable,” added Sedillot, who is also a spokesman for the NGO. Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM).

Other high-profile detainees being discussed for transfer include Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina who was granted a stay of execution in 2015, and five other members of Australia’s Bali Nine, all convicted on drug charges.

Two of the group were shot, one died of cancer, and another was released in 2018.

Muslim-majority Indonesia has some of the world’s toughest drug laws and has executed foreigners in the past.

According to the human rights group KontraS, citing official data, 530 prisoners have been sentenced to death in Indonesia, including 88 foreigners.

AFP