Indonesia unmoved by pleas for drug convict

JAKARTA: An Indonesian court rejected a French national’s last-ditch appeal against the death sentence yesterday, making him the latest foreigner to face execution for drug offences, and prompting a message of support for the prisoner.

Serge Atlaoui had been granted a last-minute reprieve while legal avenues were exhausted, and was left out of a group of seven foreign prisoners who were executed on April 29.

President Joko Widodo’s refusal to grant clemency despite pleas for mercy has strained Indonesia’s relations with a number of countries, including Australia, Brazil, the Netherlands and Nigeria, which have all had citizens on death row.

Indonesia has harsh punishments for drug crimes, but imposed an informal moratorium on executions for five years before resuming in 2013. Under Widodo’s term, Indonesia has executed 14 convicts, mostly foreign citizens, so far this year.

Atlaoui has no further legal options, but will not be executed during the Muslim holy month of Ramadaan, said Tony Spontana, a spokesman for the Indonesian Attorney-General’s Office. He gave no other indication of when Atlaoui might face the firing squad.

Atlaoui’s lawyer, Nancy Yuliana Sunjoto, said his legal team would still look for other legal channels.

French President Francois Hollande warned Indonesia of diplomatic consequences last month should Atlaoui’s execution go ahead.

Atlaoui was arrested in a raid on a factory producing ecstasy pills on the outskirts of the capital, Jakarta, in 2005. He has maintained his innocence, saying he thought he was working in an acrylics factory. – Reuters