Jakarta on Friday said Frenchman Serge Atlaoui, held on death row in for nearly two decades, is to be returned to his home country.
In recent weeks, Indonesia has freed some half a dozen high-profile detainees, and the .
What we know about the release
Indonesia’s senior law and human rights minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra signed the deal in a video call with French Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin.
“I think this is a process that has been quite long … but under the current government the negotiation has been relatively swift,” Yusril told a press conference alongside France’s ambassador to Jakarta, Fabien Penone.
The deal comes after months of talks to repatriate Atlaoui, who is currently suffering from an illness for which he requires weekly hospital treatment.
“It is obviously a great relief to finally learn of the agreement concluded between France and Indonesia for the transfer of Serge,” Atlaoui’s French lawyer Richard Sedillot told the AFP news agency.
“These last few days have been difficult, since the conclusion of the agreement has been postponed several times,” he said.
It remained initially unclear what fate Atlaoui is to face when he returns to France.
What we know about Serge Atlaoui
Atlaoui was sentenced to death in 2007 after being arrested at a drugs factory outside the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.
The father-of-four, now 61, has maintained his innocence, saying he had been installing machinery in what he believed to be an acrylics plant when he was arrested in 2005.
Initially sentenced to life in prison, Atlaoui had his sentence increased to the death penalty on appeal to the Supreme Court.
He was initially held on the island of Nusakambangan in Central Java — known as Indonesia’s “Alcatraz,” following the death sentence.
Ahead of an appeal before he was due to be executed alongside eight other drug offenders, he was transferred to the city of Tangerang, west of Jakarta.
He from the death sentence after Paris ramped up the pressure, with Indonesian authorities agreeing to let an outstanding appeal run its course.
, executions have been on hiatus since 2016, although the Indonesian government has signaled that they are set to resume.
Recent releases of foreign prisoners
Indonesia has some of the world’s toughest drug laws and has executed foreigners in the past.
Some 530 people are on death row in the Southeast Asian archipelago nation, mostly for drug-related crimes.
Indonesia last week transferred home the five remaining members of the “Bali Nine” drug ring to serve their sentences in their home country of Australia, at Canberra’s request.
Filipina inmate Mary Jane Veloso, arrested and sentenced to death in 2010 after the suitcase she was carrying was found to be lined with 2.6 kilograms (5.7 pounds) of heroin, was last month reunited with her family after nearly 15 years on Indonesia’s death row.
rc/nm (AFP, Reuters)
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