JAKARTA
\nFrance 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 said on Saturday.
\nIndonesia has in recent weeks released half a dozen high-profile detainees, including a Filipino mum on death row and the last five members of the so-called \u201cBali Nine\u201d drug ring.
\nFrench diplomats have acknowledged that talks were underway for the transfer of Serge Atlaoui, a 61-year-old Frenchman arrested in 2005 at a drugs factory outside the capital Jakarta.
\nThe Indonesian government has now confirmed it received the official transfer request, which will be discussed in early January.
\n\u201cWe have received a formal letter requesting the transfer of Serge Atlaoui,\u201d senior law and human rights minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra said.
\nThe French embassy in Jakarta declined AFP\u2019s request for comment.
\nFather-of-four Atlaoui has maintained his innocence, claiming that he was installing machinery in what he thought was an acrylics plant.
\nHe was initially sentenced to life in prison, but the Supreme Court in 2007 increased the sentence to death on appeal.
\nAtlaoui was held on the island of Nusakambangan in Central Java, known as Indonesia\u2019s \u201cAlcatraz,\u201d following the death sentence, but he was transferred to the city of Tangerang, west of Jakarta, in 2015 ahead of his appeal.
\nThat year, he was due to be executed alongside eight other drug offenders but won a temporary reprieve after Paris stepped up pressure, with Indonesian authorities agreeing to let an outstanding appeal run its course.
\nIn the appeal, Atlaoui\u2019s lawyers argued that then-president Joko Widodo did not properly consider his case as he rejected Atlaoui\u2019s plea for clemency \u2014 typically a death row convict\u2019s last chance to avoid the firing squad.
\nThe court, however, upheld its previous decision that it did not have the jurisdiction to hear a challenge over the clemency plea.
\nAtlaoui\u2019s lawyer, Richard Sedillot, said last month that there was still \u201cconsiderable hope\u201d for a transfer.
\nTogether Against the Death Penalty (ECPM) said the official request is the \u201cpenultimate step in a long fight\u201d for those at the Paris-based organization who have campaigned for years to prevent Atlaoui\u2019s execution.
\n\u201cWe are now waiting for this transfer to become a reality,\u201d ECPM director Raphael Chenuil-Hazan said.
\nEarlier this month, Filipino inmate Mary Jane Veloso tearfully reunited with her family after nearly 15 years on Indonesia\u2019s death row. She was transferred to a women\u2019s prison in Manila where she awaits a hoped-for pardon for her drugs conviction.
\nIndonesia has some of the world\u2019s toughest drug laws and has executed foreigners in the past.
\nAt least 530 people were on death row in the Southeast Asian nation, mostly for drug-related crimes, according to data from rights group KontraS, citing official figures.
\nAccording to Indonesia\u2019s Immigration and Corrections Ministry, more than 90 foreigners were on death row, all on drug charges, as of early November.
\nDespite ongoing negotiations for prisoner transfers, the Indonesian government recently signaled that it would resume executions \u2014 on hiatus since 2016 \u2014 of drug convicts on death row.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 said on Saturday. Indonesia has in recent weeks released half a dozen high-profile detainees, including a Filipino mum on death row and the last five members of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452213,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-452190","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n