Repatriated Frenchman's Indonesia death sentence commuted to 30 years; presidential pardon and release likely

A French court commuted the sentence of Serge Atlaoui, who was allowed to return to France last week after 18 years on death row in Indonesia, where he was convicted of drug offenses. The ruling opens the door for a presidential pardon.

A Frenchman reprieved after 18 years on death row in Indonesia on drug offenses will have to serve 30 years in jail after being repatriated last week, a French court ruled Wednesday, February 12. The ruling – which was largely a technicality and not based on the case itself – now gives Serge Atlaoui the chance to ask for a softening of his sentence or a pardon from President Emmanuel Macron, which could see him released after a two-decade ordeal.

Atlaoui, a 61-year-old welder from Metz in northeastern France, has always denied being a drug trafficker. The French judiciary has emphasized it is not competent to judge the case itself after the rulings by the Indonesian authorities and can only convert the sentence into the equivalent French term.

The Indonesian ruling "is equivalent in French law to the production (...) of drugs in an organized gang, which is punishable by 30 years in prison," the court in Pontoise, north of Paris, said at the hearing.

Atlaoui's lawyer Richard Sédillot said he could now lodge requests for both a softening of the sentence and a French presidential pardon. "His ordeal can be ended, it will take a few more weeks," he said.

The death penalty was abolished in France in 1981. Prosecutors had earlier said that the death sentence should be turned into a life term in France.

'Chemist' accusations

Atlaoui was arrested in 2005 at a factory in a Jakarta suburb where dozens of kilograms of drugs were discovered, with Indonesian authorities accusing him of being a "chemist." The welder by trade said that he was installing machinery in what he thought was an acrylic factory.

Under an agreement last month between both countries for his transfer, Jakarta left it to the French government to grant him either clemency, amnesty or a reduced sentence.

An Indonesian court initially sentenced Atlaoui to life in prison, but the Supreme Court changed that to a death sentence on appeal in 2007. The Frenchman was due to be executed alongside eight others in 2015 but was granted a reprieve after Paris applied pressure and the Indonesian authorities allowed an outstanding appeal to proceed.

Atlaoui's return was made possible after an agreement between French Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin and his Indonesian counterpart, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, on January 24. In the agreement, Jakarta said it had decided not to execute Atlaoui and authorized his return on "humanitarian grounds" because he was ill.

Source: Agence France-Presse, Staff, February 12, 2025

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