Death Penalty News

Two British drug convicts, including a grandmother who had been on death row in Indonesia for more than a decade, arrived back in the UK on Friday. Indonesia has some of the world's toughest drug laws, but has moved to release more than half a dozen high-profile detainees in the last year. Lindsay Sandiford, 69, was sentenced to death on the tourist island of Bali in 2013 for smuggling $2.14 million worth of cocaine into Indonesia. She was released on humanitarian grounds along with Shahab Shahabadi, 36, who had been serving a life sentence for drug offences after his arrest in 2014.

Serge Atlaoui was granted a reprieve from execution in 2015 after Paris applied pressure and the Indonesian authorities allowed an outstanding appeal to proceed. A Frenchman who spent almost two decades on death row in Indonesia over drug offences before being returned to France left prison on Friday after being granted a conditional release. Serge Atlaoui, a 61-year-old welder from Metz in eastern France, was flown back to France in February after being on death row in Indonesia since 2007. He was greeted by his lawyer, Richard Sedillot, as he walked out of the gate of Meaux prison near Paris, wearing a white T-shirt and grey trousers.

Three British nationals accused of smuggling over two pounds of cocaine into Indonesia were charged Tuesday in a court on the tourist island of Bali. They face the death penalty under the country's strict drug laws. Convicted drug smugglers in Indonesia are sometimes executed by firing squad. Jonathan Christopher Collyer, 28, and Lisa Ellen Stocker, 29, were arrested on Feb. 1 after customs officers halted them at the X-ray machine after finding suspicious items in their luggage disguised as food packages, said prosecutor I Made Dipa Umbara.

The French welder, sentenced to death for drug trafficking in 2007,  landed in France on February 5. RTL collected the testimony of his wife, Sabine, who has not seen him since 2019. "Shattered", she is happy to see him again. Atlaoui spent nearly 20 years in Indonesian prisons, including 17 on death row.

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.

French national Serge Atlaoui returned to his home country on Wednesday after spending 18 years on death row in Indonesia for alleged drug offences. Jakarta authorised Atlaoui's return on “humanitarian grounds” and left it to the French government to grant him either clemency, amnesty or a reduced sentence. A Frenchman reprieved after 18 years on death row in Indonesia for alleged drug offences landed back in France on Wednesday, an airport source said. Serge Atlaoui, 61, is to be transported from the Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport outside Paris to court and then on to jail, said a source close to the case and the prosecutor’s office in the nearby town of Bobigny.

A 61-year-old Frenchman sentenced to death in Indonesia in 2007 for drug offences left prison in Jakarta on Tuesday, prison officials told an AFP journalist at the site, before being escorted to the airport to fly to France in the evening. Serge Atlaoui, whose transfer was agreed by Paris and Jakarta on January 24, is expected to land in Paris on Wednesday morning and will immediately appear in front of the prosecutor in Bobigny, according to his lawyer Richard Sedillot, who will then request his release.

Jakarta. The Indonesian government has agreed to transfer French citizen Serge Areski Atlaoui, who is on death row for a drug conviction, back to his home country on compassionate grounds, a senior official announced on Friday. Atlaoui, who has been diagnosed with cancer, requested to undergo medical treatment in France. The transfer is scheduled for February 4. "He is now in poor health and requires serious medical treatment," said Yusril Ihza Mahendra, Coordinating Minister for Legal, Immigration, Human Rights, and Correctional Affairs.

French diplomats have acknowledged that talks were underway for the transfer of the 61-year-old Frenchman arrested in 2005 at a drugs factory. JAKARTA: France has sent Indonesia an official request for the transfer of a French death row inmate who has spent nearly 20 years in prison, an Indonesian minister told AFP on Saturday. Indonesia has in recent weeks released half a dozen high-profile detainees, including a Filipina mum on death row and the last five members of the so-called “Bali Nine” drug ring.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — An ailing French national on death row for drug offenses has made a last-ditch plea to be returned home, Indonesian authorities said Friday, as the new administration of President Prabowo Subianto planned to give pardon to 44,000 inmates nationwide. Subianto has surprised the nation with the clemency plan, barely two months after he took office. Past Indonesian leaders have rarely used the presidential prerogative of giving amnesty. Serge Atlaoui, who had spent almost 20 years in Indonesian prison, won a last-minute reprieve in 2015 and was excluded from being executed by a 13-member firing squad.

SYDNEY, Australia -- The five remaining members of the Australian "Bali Nine" drug ring flew home Sunday after 19 years in jail in Indonesia, ending a saga that had frayed relations between the two countries. Indonesian police arrested the nine Australians in 2005, convicting them of attempting to smuggle more than eight kilograms (18 pounds) of heroin off the holiday island of Bali. The case drew global attention to Indonesia's unforgiving drug laws, with two of the gang executed by firing squad, while the others served hefty prison sentences.

A Filipina drug convict on death row in Indonesia told AFP from prison Friday that her planned transfer was a "miracle", in her first interview since Manila and Jakarta signed an agreement last week to repatriate her. Mother of two Mary Jane Veloso, 39, was 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, in a case that sparked uproar in the Philippines. Both she and her supporters claim she was duped by an international drug syndicate, and in 2015, she narrowly escaped execution after her suspected recruiter was arrested.

Jakarta (AFP) – Manila and Jakarta signed an agreement Friday to repatriate Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina on death row for drug charges in Indonesia since 2015, with officials saying she could return to the Philippines before Christmas. The announcement came following the Philippines' Department of Justice undersecretary Raul Vasquez meeting with Indonesia's senior law and human rights minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra in Jakarta Friday, where both ministers signed the agreement.

The new Indonesian president – who came to office with a questionable human rights record – has emerged as an unlikely champion for a prisoner swap deal In the dark of the early morning of 29 April 2015, two members of Australia’s so-called Bali Nine were each tied to a stake in a floodlit field on the Indonesian prison island of Nusakambangan. Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran refused blindfolds, and sang as they stood before a firing squad of 12. They were killed at 12.35am.

Jakarta (AFP) – France has asked Indonesia to transfer a French death row convict, who has been jailed for drug crimes in the Asian nation since 2005, a senior Indonesian minister told AFP on Friday. Indonesia is in discussion with three countries, including France, over the return of several high-profile detainees and aims to transfer the prisoners by the end of December. "The French embassy has delivered a letter from France's justice minister to Indonesia's law minister dated November 4 containing a request for the transfer of a French prisoner named Serge Atlaoui," senior law and human rights minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra told AFP in a message.

The Republic of Indonesia has quickly endorsed and accepted a Presidential principle agreement to return the five remaining members of the notorious “Bali Nine” to Australia, effectively truncating the five’s life sentence now being served in an Indonesian prison. On Saturday, 23 November 2024, Indonesian Minister of Law, Supratman Andi Agtas, confirmed the commutation of the five Australians life sentences, stipulating that the Australian convicts would be transferred to Australian prisons to serve indeterminate sentences. The exact period to be served by the five remains under review but is anticipated to be less than the life sentence without parole they are serving in Indonesia.

✔ Click here to Google translate the following story into your own language Le 29 avril 2015, Serge Atlaoui, condamné à la peine capitale en Indonésie pour trafic de drogue échappait in extremis à son exécution mais il reste depuis incarcéré dans le couloir de la mort. "On est traumatisés, on a du mal à se replonger dans cette période", souffle l'épouse de Serge Atlaoui. Quand la fin avril approche "on revit toute cette souffrance et cette cruauté", témoigne Sabine Atlaoui, 46 ans.  De cela, elle ne parle pas avec son mari, de dix ans son aîné. "On évite de s'infliger cette douleur", glisse cette secrétaire, employée en Moselle. Serge Atlaoui avait été arrêté en 2005 lors du démantèlement d'un laboratoire clandestin d'ecstasy, dans la banlieue de Jakarta. Soudeur de profession, il soutenait n'avoir fait qu'installer des machines dans ce qu'il croyait être une usine d'acrylique. Ce travail au noir, il l...

✔ Click here to Google translate this article into your own language Des membres de l’association Ensemble contre la peine de mort (ECPM) ont rendu visite à Serge Atlaoui, dans sa prison indonésienne. Quatorze ans jour pour jour après son incarcération pour un trafic de drogue contesté, ils ont pu se rendre compte avec Sabine, son épouse, des conditions de détention toujours plus délicates du Mosellan. Et du peu de perspectives d’avenir. 11 novembre 2005 – 11 novembre 2019. Tout a changé et rien n’a changé. Serge Atlaoui, 56 ans dans quelques jours, a été incarcéré le 11 novembre 2005 pour une affaire de drogue. Quatorze ans plus tard, le Mosellan est toujours là-bas. Toujours dans le couloir de la mort, un peloton d’exécution prêt à tirer au gré des envies du gouvernement en place. Les épreuves de 2015 où sa vie ne tenait qu’à un fil semblent derrière lui. Mais ça ne signifie pas que les perspectives d’avenir soient bien meilleures pour le détenu, transféré depuis un an dan...

✔ Click here to Google translate this story into your own language Condamné à 19 ans de prison pour trafic de drogue, le Français Félix Dorfin va être placé dans un complexe de haute sécurité. Actuellement incarcéré à la prison de Mataram, sur l’île de Lombok en Indonésie, l’homme de 35 ans a tenté pour la seconde fois de s’évader, indique le chef de l’établissement pénitentiaire. Le Français Félix Dorfin, détenu en Indonésie pour trafic de drogue, va être transféré dans un complexe pénitentiaire sous haute sécurité, après avoir tenté de s’échapper pour la deuxième fois, a indiqué ce vendredi le responsable de sa prison. L’homme de 35 ans, originaire de Béthune, avait été condamné à la peine de mort après avoir été interpellé l’an dernier à l’aéroport de Lombok, une île touristique proche de Bali, avec trois kilos de drogues dans une valise à double fond. Sa peine a été ramenée à 19 ans de détention en août par la Haute cour de Lombok. Un trou dans sa cellule Alert...

JAKARTA -- A French drug smuggler's death sentence has been commuted by an Indonesian court to 19 years in prison, his lawyer told AFP on Friday. The ruling comes less than 3 months after Felix Dorfin, 35, was handed a capital sentence following his arrest last year at the airport on the holiday island next to Bali, where foreigners are routinely charged with drugs offences. Dorfin was carrying a suitcase filled with about three kilograms (6.6 pounds) of drugs including ecstasy and amphetamines when he was seized, but maintains he had no knowledge of the narcotics. Muslim majority Indonesia has some of the world's toughest drug laws and has executed foreigners in the past, including the masterminds of Australia's Bali Nine heroin gang. It was not immediately clear why the Mataram High Court in Lombok overturned Dorfin's sentence, with the ruling expected to be made public later Friday. His lawyer, Denny Nur Indra, confirmed the court's decisio...