French national Serge Atlaoui 'not a drug user, not a trafficker, not a drug baron': French Ambassador

Serge Atlaoui: "Not a drug user, not a trafficker"

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - French Ambassador Corinne Breuze said the death sentence and a threat of execution of a Frenchman in Indonesia has been received as a disturbing news in France.

"The report is greatly disturbing for the French people as since 1981, no French citizen has been punished with death either in France or abroad," Breuze told a news conference at the French embassy here on Thursday.

Therefore, all people of France including its government gave support to the family of Serge Atlaoui, the Frenchman, who was given a death penalty for cases of ecstasy factory.

"Serge Atlaoui is not a user, a dealer or the owner of the drug factory. We hope the law authorities give a serious attention to his bid for a review (PK) of the sentence and could give a fair decision," the ambassador said.

Meanwhile PK on the case of Atlaoui has been submitted to the Tangerang District Court on February 10, 2015 and the court would hold a session on the PK request on 11 March, 2015.

Atlaoui's team of lawyers led by Nancy Yuliana said the court of justice could have erred in making the decision in earlier court sessions.

Serge Atlaoui was given the death penalty by the Supreme Court in 2007.

Earlier the district court of Tangerang declared Atlaoui was involved in the operation of Asia's largest ecstasy factory located in Cikande, regency of Serang, Banten.

The District Court in 2006 gave him a life sentence and the sentence was confirmed by the Banten high court in 2007, but the Supreme Court gave him the death penalty.

Atlaoui is one of the convicts to face the firing squad after their appeals for clemency were rejected by President Joko Widodo.

The attorney general office said 11 convicts including 8 drug convicts and three pre-medidated murders would be the next to be executed.

The 8 drug convicts are Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran from Australia, Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso from the Philippines, Martin Anderson from Ghana, Raheem Agbaje Salami from Spain, Rodrigo Gularte from Brazil and Zainal Abidin from Indonesia.

The thee murder convicts are Syfial Iyen bin Azwar, Harun bin Ajis and Sargawi alias Ali bin Sanusi -- all Indonesians.

Last month six other drug convicts were executed drawing strong protest from a number of countries.

Among the strongest protesting countries are Brazil, Australia and the Netherlands.

The Brazilian government rejected credentials of new Indonesian ambassador and Indonesian reacted by ordering the ambassador to return home.

Australia reminded Indonesia of its humanitarian aid for Aceh tsunami in 2004 in bid to safe the life of the two Australian to face the execution.

The Netherlands recalled its ambassador.

Indonesia, however, remains adamant and President Joko Widodo has said he would not give clemency for drug convicts.

Source: AntaraNews, February 26, 2015

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Florida executes Dominick Occhicone

Florida executes 2 men in a day. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has made Florida's death chamber the nation’s busiest at the end of his final term. STARKE, Fla. — Florida on Tuesday became the first state in nearly a decade to carry out two executions in a single day, the last an 80-year-old man who was the second-oldest inmate known to receive a lethal injection in modern U.S. history. Hours earlier, the state executed a former police officer convicted of killing a young girl.

Two Executions In Six Hours: Florida Set For Historical Double Execution Tuesday

Florida is preparing to execute two death row inmates on Tuesday, July 28, in an action that would mark the state’s first double execution in more than 60 years. Former police officer James Duckett, 68, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 12 p.m., followed six hours later by 80-year-old Dominick Occhicone at 6 p.m. If carried out, these will mark the 39th and 40th executions under Gov. Ron DeSantis and the 11th and 12th in the state since the beginning of 2026. In response, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP) has launched petition and letter-writing efforts asking DeSantis to halt both procedures. The group has organized two public vigils outside Florida State Prison in Raiford, set for 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., contingent on whether stays are issued.

Florida | 49 years on death row, killer of Bonita Springs teen learns death date

A Fort Myers man on death row for nearly five decades learned his execution date as Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his order Thursday, July 30. Harold Gene Lucas, then 24, shot and killed his 16-year-old girlfriend, Anthia Jill Piper in Bonita Springs on August 14, 1976. Lucas was 24 when he was charged in Piper's shooting death at her parents' home on Aug. 14, 1976. The execution is set for Sept. 1 in a state that has accelerated its pace under DeSantis the past two years, with a record of 19 executions in 2025. Piper was shot seven times by Lucas, who claimed to be intoxicated.

Florida executes James Duckett

Double execution: 1st of 2 inmates is put to death in Florida Florida has executed James Duckett, a 68-year-old former cop convicted of killing an 11-year-old girl in 1987. The state is set to execute an 80-year-old man 6 hours later for a 1986 murder. Florida carried out the 1st double execution in more than 60 years, executing former police officer James Duckett and later scheduling the execution of 80‑year‑old Dominick Occhicone, amid Governor Ron DeSantis’s aggressive push to increase death penalties in the state. Florida has put to death the 1st of 2 inmates in the state's 1st double execution in more than 60 years amid an aggressive death penalty push by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Florida | Former warden recalls botched electrocution that left him battling PTSD for 13 years and turned him into an abolitionist

Ron McAndrew anticipated it would be just another standard execution. He had been assigned to carry out the death of Cuban refugee Pedro Medina via electric chair within the confines of Florida State Prison. Fifteen years had passed since Medina's conviction for the murder of 52-year-old Dorothy James, and McAndrew's responsibility was to oversee the administration of lethal electrical currents to his brain. Having already supervised two previous executions using the identical procedure and raised in a community that strongly supported capital punishment, he expected a swift conclusion with justice delivered.

Iran erects iron gallows in Isfahan protest square

An iron gallows has been erected in an Isfahan square where protests erupted in January. Families of several of the 10 remaining prisoners sentenced to death have been summoned for farewell visits. An iron gallows erected in Ali-Khani Square in the central Iranian city of Isfahan has raised fears that the regime is preparing to publicly execute protesters arrested during nationwide demonstrations in January. Sources who spoke with Iran International said large numbers of security forces had been deployed in the area, while the families of several prisoners sentenced to death had been summoned to the prison for farewell visits.

North Korea | 'I was only 9': North Korean defector recalls childhood memory of public execution

Kim Eun-joo was 9 years old when her teacher stopped their lesson and told the class to follow her outside. The children were marched to a public execution ground in North Korea. “I would cry even when our family dog died,” Kim said in a recent interview with The Korea Times. “But the first time I watched humans killing a human, I had no words for what I was feeling. It was the most brutal scene I have ever seen, in any movie or in real life.” The memory has stayed with her ever since. Now a human rights advocate after defecting from North Korea, Kim recently brought that childhood scene to the 9th World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Paris, where North Korea’s use of public executions and capital punishment was officially placed on the agenda for the first time.

USA | What happens in the final weeks before an execution? These reporters were inside the room.

The journalists behind ‘The Last 12 Weeks’ earned extraordinary access to a death penalty defense team—and faced difficult ethical choices Many defense lawyers are naturally cagey. They work in a pressure cooker, protecting their clients’ rights while fighting for the best possible outcome. And arguably, the stakes can’t get any higher than trying to save a client’s life. So no, defense lawyers don’t usually invite journalists into strategy meetings. But that’s what happened when Marshall Project reporter Maurice Chammah and Serial Productions senior producer Alvin Melathe spent the final few months before a Texas execution embedded with a capital defense team.

Idaho | How Bryan Kohberger’s Guilty Plea Move Could Be His Death Sentence

If Bryan Kohberger successfully withdraws his guilty plea and goes to trial for the murders of four University of Idaho students, it could lead to him being sentenced to death, experts told Newsweek . Kohberger, 31, filed a handwritten petition on Monday from the Idaho Maximum Security Penitentiary, where he is serving four consecutive life sentences for the murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen in a rental home near the university's campus in Moscow, Idaho, in 2022. Kohberger pleaded guilty to the fatal stabbings just over a year ago, a month before jury selection was set to start.

19 July 1943 | Auschwitz's Largest Public Hanging: 12 Polish Prisoners Executed in Escape Reprisal

OSWIECIM, Poland — The SS carried out the largest public hanging in Auschwitz history on July 19, 1943, executing 12 Polish prisoners before other inmates as collective punishment for escapes and civilian contacts. The victims, all from the camp’s surveyors’ labor unit, were hanged on gallows built in front of the camp kitchen during an Auschwitz I roll call. The SS orchestrated this reprisal following prisoner escapes from the surveyors’ detail and unauthorized communication between inmates and civilians. Camp authorities used the recent escapes as a pretext to impose collective punishment.

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