A taste of freedom: Atlaoui (centre) arriving for a press conference at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, after leaving Salemba prison. — AFP
A Frenchman on death row in Indonesia since 2007 for drug offences left for France on Tuesday, with his lawyer saying he was “happy and calm” ahead of returning home.
Serge Atlaoui, 61, left for Paris on board a KLM flight via Amsterdam, senior Indonesian law and human rights official I Nyoman Gede Surya Mataram said.
Atlaoui’s lawyer Richard Sedillot said he would work to have his client’s sentence “adapted” so that the father of four could be released.
“I am delighted that the fight we have led has resulted in the victory of life over death,” Sedillot said.
Atlaoui was tight-lipped and wore a face mask at an earlier news conference after he was driven in a black van from Jakarta’s Salemba prison to the city’s main airport and handed over to French police officers.
French ambassador Fabien Penone thanked Indonesia for allowing the transfer.
Jakarta has left it to the French government to grant Atlaoui – the only Frenchman on death row in Indonesia – either clemency, amnesty or a reduced sentence. — AFP
