Sawt Falasteen - Frenchman on Indonesian death row to be sent home

Indonesia has in recent weeks released half a dozen high-profile detainees, including a Filipina mother on death row and the last five members of the so-called "Bali Nine" drug ring.

Senior law and human rights minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra signed a deal for the transfer of Serge Atlaoui, a 61-year-old arrested in 2005 at a drug factory near Jakarta, in a video call with French Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin.

"I think this is a process that has been quite long... but under the current government the negotiation has been relatively swift," Yusril told reporters at a press conference alongside French ambassador to Indonesia Fabien Penone.

The deal caps months of talks for the transfer of the Frenchman, who will likely be repatriated on February 4, Yusril told AFP on Friday.

Atlaoui is currently suffering from an illness in a Jakarta prison and receives weekly treatment at a hospital, raising the stakes of his transfer.

"It is obviously a great relief to finally learn of the agreement concluded between France and Indonesia for the transfer of Serge," Atlaoui's French lawyer Richard Sedillot told AFP.

"These last few days have been difficult, since the conclusion of the agreement has been postponed several times," he said.

Atlaoui's fate upon his return to France remains unclear.

- Maintained innocence -

The father of four long maintained his innocence, insisting he was installing machinery in what he thought was an acrylics plant.

He was initially sentenced to life in prison, but the Supreme Court in 2007 increased the sentence to death.

Activists campaigning for an end to the death penalty hailed the agreement.

"We are delighted with this transfer decision... and to know that Serge Atlaoui can now return to France after everything he has experienced," Raphael Chenuil-Hazan, executive director of NGO Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM), told AFP.

He said Atlaoui "has largely served his sentence and well beyond that" and called for the French government to grant him clemency.

Atlaoui was held on the island of Nusakambangan in Central Java, known as Indonesia's "Alcatraz", following the death sentence, but he was later transferred to the city of Tangerang, west of Jakarta.

He was due to be executed in 2015 alongside eight other drug offenders, but won a reprieve after Paris stepped up pressure, with Indonesian authorities agreeing to let an outstanding appeal run its course.

Indonesia has some of the world's toughest drug laws and has executed foreigners in the past.

At least 530 people are on death row in the Southeast Asian nation, according to data from rights group KontraS, mostly for drug-related crimes.

Indonesia's Immigration and Corrections Ministry said more than 90 foreigners were on death row, all on drug charges, as of early November.

Last month, Filipina inmate Mary Jane Veloso tearfully reunited with her family after nearly 15 years on Indonesia's death row.

The Indonesian government recently signalled it will resume executions, on hiatus since 2016.

E.Qaddoumi--SF-PST