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The release deal for Serge Atlaoui comes weeks after five Australians, serving sentences for drug smuggling, were allowed to return home last month.
ADVERTISEMENTIndonesia and France have signed a deal to repatriate Serge Atlaoui, a French national who has been on death row since 2007 for alleged drug offences but who will now return to France on 4 February. Atlaoui was arrested in 2005 for his alleged involvement in a factory manufacturing the psychedelic drug MDMA. Police accused him of working as a “chemist” in a factory located on the outskirts of Jakarta.The father of four, who is reportedly suffering from cancer, has maintained his innocence throughout his 19-year incarceration. His lawyers say he was employed as a welder at the factory and did not understand what the chemicals on the premises were used for.Atlaoui was handed a life sentence in 2005, but Indonesia’s Supreme Court increased the conviction to death on appeal in 2007. Last month, he wrote to the Indonesian government requesting to serve the rest of his sentence in France, where the maximum criminal sentence for serious crimes including murder, rape, and drug trafficking is 30 years. On Friday, a transfer agreement was signed remotely by Indonesia’s senior minister of law, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, and France’s minister of justice, Gérald Darmanin. France’s ambassador to Indonesia, Fabien Penone, thanked the Indonesian government for granting Atlaoui’s request. “We want to develop our legal cooperation in a much more straightforward way,” he said. “We are reinforcing our bilateral relationship, we have a real partnership.”Mahendra stated that once Atlaoui is repatriated, “the authority to treat the convict is entirely under the French government”. He added that if France decided to pardon Atlaoui or grant clemency, “that is entirely their authority and one which we must also respect”.Atlaoui’s case has drawn attention in France, which abolished the death penalty in 1981 and now vigorously opposes it “in all places and under all circumstances”.In May 2015, when Indonesia executed eight death row inmates, Atlaoui was granted a stay of execution due to an outstanding court appeal. However, the appeal was denied the following month.The news of Atlaoui’s transfer to France comes weeks after five members of the “Bali Nine” drug ring — who were arrested in 2005 — were allowed to return to Australia after nearly 20 years in prison. The men were among nine people arrested for attempting to smuggle more than 8kg of heroin out of the resort island of Bali. Indonesia’s last executions were carried out in July 2016. Data from the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections released last month showed that around 530 people are currently on death row in Indonesia, mostly for drug-related crimes, including nearly 100 foreigners.The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) says Indonesia remains a major drug smuggling hub despite having some of the strictest drug laws in the world. The trade is fuelled in part by international drug syndicates targeting the country’s young population.According to the UNODC, amphetamine type stimulants from Indonesia are being trafficked internationally at a rate that will soon rival Europe.
