Serge Atlaoui Returns to France After 17 Years on Death Row in Indonesia

Serge Atlaoui, a French citizen sentenced to death in 2007 in Indonesia for drug trafficking, arrived in France on Wednesday, February 5. His flight from Amsterdam landed at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport shortly after 10 a.m. This return follows an agreement between Paris and Jakarta signed on January 24 for “humanitarian reasons.”

The artisan welder from Metz was arrested in 2005 in an Indonesian factory where dozens of kilos of ecstasy were found. Accused of being a “chemist” actively involved in the production of drugs, he was initially sentenced to life imprisonment before the Supreme Court increased his sentence to the death penalty on appeal. He was supposed to be executed in 2015 along with other prisoners, but French diplomatic intervention had secured a stay of execution.

During his years of incarceration, Serge Atlaoui’s health deteriorated significantly. Suffering from two cancers, he was regularly removed from his cell to receive treatment at a nearby hospital.

Upon his arrival in France, he was taken into custody by the penitentiary administration and transferred to the judicial court of Bobigny. There, he will be presented to the prosecutor, who will notify him of his incarceration in France, as part of the execution of his sentence. His lawyer, Richard Sédillot, has already announced that he will request a modification of his sentence, which could lead to his release.

His wife, Sabine Atlaoui, expressed her joy on social media, stating that he is now “freed from the death penalty sentence.” French justice will now decide his future.