French man in the death corridor in Indonesia to return home

A French citizen in the death corridor in Indonesia since 2007 for drug crimes has left prison to return to France as part of an agreement made between the two countries.

Serge Atlaoui, 61, was accused of being a “chemical” by the Indonesian authorities and arrested in 2005 in a factory in Yakarta, where dozens of kilos (pounds) of drugs were found.

An agreement was reached between Indonesia and France on January 24 to extradite the four -year -old father for “humanitarian reasons” because he has cancer and has been receiving weekly treatment in a hospital.

“It’s a miracle,” said his wife Sabine Atlaoui Rtl radio in France. “It survived 19 years of imprisonment. He survived an execution.”

The 61-year-old will be delivered to the French police at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Yakarta, before boarding a commercial flight to Paris.

Upon returning, Atlaoui will be presented to prosecutors “and probably arrested while waiting for a decision,” said Atlaaui’s lawyer Richard Sedillot.

Atlaoui told his family that he does not want to meet them at the airport, his wife said.

“He wants to see his family again when he is free,” he told RTL. “Unfortunately, we don’t know how long it will take.”

In France, the maximum punishment for a similar crime is 30 years, the Minister of Human Rights of Indonesia, Yusril Ihza Mahendra told Reuters.

It will depend on Paris to grant “clemency, amnesty or a reduced sentence,” he said.

Atlaoui, a Metz welder in the northeast of France, has always denied being a drug trafficker.

He claimed to install machinery in an acrylic factory, but told AFP in 2015 that “he thought there was something suspicious.”

Originally sentenced to life imprisonment, the verdict was changed to death in appeal by the Supreme Court of Indonesia.

Its execution was scheduled for 2015but he stopped thanks to the pressure of the French government.