Bid for freedom: Atlaoui being taken to court for his appeal hearing on April 1, 2015. — AFP
FRANCE has sent Indonesia an official request for the transfer of a French death row inmate who has spent nearly 20 years in prison.
Indonesia has in recent weeks released half a dozen high-profile detainees, including a Filipina on death row and the last five members of the so-called Bali Nine drug ring.
French diplomats have acknowledged that talks were underway for the transfer of Serge Atlaoui, a 61-year-old Frenchman arrested in 2005 at a secret drug factory outside Jakarta.
“We have received a formal letter requesting the transfer of Serge Atlaoui,” senior law and human rights minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra said yesterday.
He said it would be studied and discussed in early January.
Father-of-four Atlaoui has maintained his innocence, claiming that he was installing machinery in what he thought was an acrylic plant.
He was initially sentenced to life in prison, but the Supreme Court in 2007 increased the sentence to death on appeal.
Atlaoui’s lawyer, Richard Sedillot, said last month that there was still “considerable hope” for a transfer.
Earlier this month, Filipina inmate Mary Jane Veloso tearfully reunited with her family after nearly 15 years on Indonesia’s death row.
She was transferred to a women’s prison in Manila where she awaits a hoped-for pardon for her drug conviction. — AFP
