Getty images
Serge Atlaoui was accused of being a “chemist” by the authorities and arrested in 2005 in a Jakarta factory
A French national held in the death corridor in Indonesia since 2007 for drug offenses has left prison to return to France as part of an agreement concluded between the two countries.
Serge Atlaoui, 61, was accused of being a “chemist” by the Indonesian authorities and arrested in 2005 in a Jakarta factory, where dozens of kilos (books) of drugs were found.
An agreement was concluded between Indonesia and France on January 24 to extradite the father of four children for “humanitarian grounds” because it has cancer and received weekly treatment in a hospital.
“It’s a miracle,” said his wife Sabine Atlaoui on France’s RTL radio. “He survived 19 years of incarceration. He survived an execution.”
The 61-year-old will be given to the French police at Suekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta, before boarding a commercial flight to Paris.
On his return, Atlaoui will be presented to prosecutors “and most likely detained pending a decision,” said Atlaoui lawyer Richard Sedillot, to AFP.
Atlaoui told his family that he didn’t want to meet them at the airport, said his wife.
“He wants to see his family again when he is free,” she told RTL. “Unfortunately, we don’t know how long it will take.”
In France, the maximum punishment for a similar crime is 30 years, the Indonesian Minister of Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra told Reuters.
It will be up to Paris to grant “leniency, amnesty or reduced sentence,” he said.
Getty images
Atlaoui, father of four children from northeast of France, has always denied being a drug trafficker
Atlaoui, a welder from Metz in northeast France, has always denied being a drug trafficker.
He claimed to install machines in an acrylic factory, but told AFP in 2015 that he “thought there was something suspect”.
Initially sentenced to life prison, the verdict was changed on appeal by the Indonesian Supreme Court.
Its execution was scheduled for 2015, but stopped thanks to the pressure of the French government.
