JAKARTA: France has despatched Indonesia an official request for the switch of a French demise row inmate who has spent practically 20 years in jail, an Indonesian minister advised AFP on Saturday (Dec 28).
Indonesia has in latest weeks launched half a dozen high-profile detainees, together with a Filipina mum on demise row and the final 5 members of the so-called “Bali 9” drug ring.
French diplomats have acknowledged that talks have been underway for the switch of Serge Atlaoui, a 61-year-old Frenchman arrested in 2005 at a medicine manufacturing facility exterior the capital Jakarta.
The Indonesian authorities has now confirmed it acquired the official switch request, which will probably be mentioned in early January.
“We’ve acquired a proper letter requesting the switch of Serge Atlaoui,” senior legislation and human rights minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra advised AFP.
The French embassy in Jakarta declined AFP’s request for remark.
Atlaoui’s lawyer, Richard Sedillot, stated that France’s intervention introduced “immense hope”.
“It could be the end result of a protracted battle that has usually been discreet, however which has at all times been carried out all through these years,” he advised AFP.
“It has been tireless work and we’re pleased with an final result which could possibly be beneficial,” added Sedillot.
“A LONG FIGHT”
Father-of-four Atlaoui has maintained his innocence, claiming that he was putting in equipment in what he thought was an acrylics plant.
He was initially sentenced to life in jail, however the Supreme Court docket in 2007 elevated the sentence to demise on attraction.
Atlaoui was held on the island of Nusakambangan in Central Java, generally known as Indonesia’s “Alcatraz”, following the demise sentence, however he was transferred to town of Tangerang, west of Jakarta, in 2015 forward of his attraction.
That 12 months, he was as a result of be executed alongside eight different drug offenders however received a short lived reprieve after Paris stepped up strain, with Indonesian authorities agreeing to let an impressive attraction run its course.
Within the attraction, Atlaoui’s attorneys argued that then-president Joko Widodo didn’t correctly take into account his case as he rejected Atlaoui’s plea for clemency – usually a demise row convict’s final probability to keep away from the firing squad.
The court docket, nevertheless, upheld its earlier determination that it didn’t have the jurisdiction to listen to a problem over the clemency plea.
Collectively Towards the Demise Penalty (ECPM) stated the official request is the “penultimate step in a protracted battle” for these on the Paris-based organisation who’ve campaigned for years to forestall Atlaoui’s execution.
“We at the moment are ready for this switch to change into a actuality,” ECPM director Raphael Chenuil-Hazan advised AFP.
Earlier this month, Filipina inmate Mary Jane Veloso tearfully reunited along with her household after practically 15 years on Indonesia’s demise row. She was transferred to a girls’s jail in Manila the place she awaits a hoped-for pardon for her medication conviction.
Indonesia has a number of the world’s hardest drug legal guidelines and has executed foreigners prior to now.
Not less than 530 folks have been on demise row within the Southeast Asian nation, principally for drug-related crimes, in line with information from rights group KontraS, citing official figures.
Based on Indonesia’s Immigration and Corrections Ministry, greater than 90 foreigners have been on demise row, all on drug expenses, as of early November.
Regardless of ongoing negotiations for prisoner transfers, the Indonesian authorities lately signalled that it’ll resume executions – on hiatus since 2016 – of drug convicts on demise row.
