A French drug convict yesterday lost an appeal against his death sentence, but his lawyers vowed to fight on and prevent another foreigner facing the firing squad in Indonesia after a series of executions that generated an international uproar.
However, authorities in the Muslim-majority country indicated Serge Atlaoui’s execution was not imminent, as he would not be put to death during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which ends in the middle of next month.
The 51-year-old was due to be executed alongside seven other foreign drug offenders two months ago, but won a temporary reprieve after Paris stepped up pressure, with authorities agreeing to let an outstanding appeal run its course.
The execution in April of two Australians, a Brazilian and four Nigerians sparked global anger. However, Indonesian President Joko Widodo insists convicted traffickers must be harshly punished, saying Indonesia is facing a crisis due to rising drug use.
The State Administrative Court in Jakarta yesterday dismissed Atlaoui’s latest appeal, in which his lawyers argued the president rejected the convict’s plea for clemency without proper consideration. The court upheld its previous decision from April that it did not have the jurisdiction to hear the challenge to the clemency plea, which is typically a death row convict’s final chance to avoid the firing squad.
“We are disappointed with the decision, but we will continue to find other legal avenues,” Atlaoui’s lawyer, Nancy Yuliana, told reporters, adding that the legal team was still considering its next steps.
“From the very beginning, we knew that he was innocent... We are not asking for him to be set free, we are just asking for his sentence to be reduced to life imprisonment,” she said.
Tony Spontana, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office, which is in charge of executions, told reporters that the authorities “appreciate this decision.” However, he added that the execution would not happen in the holy month: “I think it’s not a wise decision to carry out an execution in Ramadan.”
Atlaoui, a welder, was arrested in 2005 in a secret drug factory outside Jakarta and authorities accused him of being a “chemist” at the site. However, the Frenchman has maintained his innocence, claiming that he was installing machinery in what he thought was an acrylics plant. He was initially sentenced to life in prison, but the Indonesian Supreme Court increased the sentence to death on appeal.
France has mounted a diplomatic campaign to save him, warning Jakarta of unspecified consequences if he is put to death and saying there was a “serious dysfunction” in Indonesia’s legal system that led to Atlaoui being sentenced to death. His case has also generated anger among the public, with marches in some French cities urging Indonesia to halt the execution plan.
After Widodo took office in October last year, he rejected pleas for clemency from Atlaoui and other foreigners, many of which had been pending for years.
Atlaoui is among several foreigners who have sought to appeal against their death sentences since the president’s move, but none has so far succeeded and authorities have accused the convicts of playing for time.
The failure of the Frenchman’s latest legal bid came after the Supreme Court in April rejected another appeal — a request by Atlaoui’s legal team for a judicial review of his death sentence.
Indonesia pushed ahead with the April executions despite global condemnation led by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in