JAKARTA: France has despatched Indonesia an official request for the switch of a French loss of life row inmate who has spent almost 20 years in jail, an Indonesian minister advised AFP on Saturday (Dec 28).
Indonesia has in current weeks launched half a dozen high-profile detainees, together with a Filipina mum on death row and the last five 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 medication manufacturing unit outdoors the capital Jakarta.
The Indonesian authorities has now confirmed it acquired the official switch request, which shall be mentioned in early January.
“We now have 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, mentioned that France’s intervention introduced “immense hope”.
“It might be the fruits of a protracted battle that has typically been discreet, however which has all the time been carried out all through these years,” he advised AFP.
“It has been tireless work and we’re proud of an final result which may very well 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 Courtroom in 2007 elevated the sentence to loss of life on enchantment.
Atlaoui was held on the island of Nusakambangan in Central Java, often called Indonesia’s “Alcatraz”, following the loss of life sentence, however he was transferred to the town of Tangerang, west of Jakarta, in 2015 forward of his enchantment.
That yr, he was on account of be executed alongside eight different drug offenders however gained a short lived reprieve after Paris stepped up strain, with Indonesian authorities agreeing to let an excellent enchantment run its course.
Within the enchantment, Atlaoui’s attorneys argued that then-president Joko Widodo didn’t correctly think about his case as he rejected Atlaoui’s plea for clemency – usually a loss of life row convict’s final likelihood to keep away from the firing squad.
The courtroom, nevertheless, upheld its earlier resolution that it didn’t have the jurisdiction to listen to a problem over the clemency plea.
Collectively Towards the Demise Penalty (ECPM) mentioned the official request is the “penultimate step in a protracted struggle” 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 turn out to be a actuality,” ECPM director Raphael Chenuil-Hazan advised AFP.
Earlier this month, Filipina inmate Mary Jane Veloso tearfully reunited together with her household after almost 15 years on Indonesia’s loss of life row. She was transferred to a girls’s jail in Manila the place she awaits a hoped-for pardon for her medicine conviction.
Indonesia has among the world’s hardest drug legal guidelines and has executed foreigners previously.
No less than 530 folks have been on loss of life row within the Southeast Asian nation, largely for drug-related crimes, in response to information from rights group KontraS, citing official figures.
In keeping with Indonesia’s Immigration and Corrections Ministry, greater than 90 foreigners have been on loss of life row, all on drug fees, as of early November.
Regardless of ongoing negotiations for prisoner transfers, the Indonesian authorities not too long ago signalled that it’s going to resume executions – on hiatus since 2016 – of drug convicts on loss of life row.
