Frenchman Serge Atlaoui released after years on Indonesia death row
Serge Atlaoui, a 61-year-old welder from Metz in eastern France, was flown back to France in February after being on death row in Indonesia since 2007.
He was greeted by his lawyer, Richard Sedillot, as he walked out of the gate of Meaux prison near Paris, wearing a white T-shirt and grey trousers.
"He will be able to breathe the freedom that he waited for for all these years," his wife, Sabine Atlaoui, told RTL broadcaster shortly before his release, which she called "unbelievable".
She had not yet "fully realised" that her husband "is back and will be with us again every day", she said.
The father of four had his sentence adapted by the French courts to 30 years' imprisonment and then was approved for conditional release.
"The story of Serge Atlaoui, who was sentenced to death, is a life lesson," Sedillot told AFP while he waited for his client.
"His resilience, his courage, his patience and his humanity are lessons for all of us."
Diplomatic pressure
Atlaoui was arrested in 2005 at a factory in a Jakarta suburb where dozens of kilogrammes (pounds) of drugs were discovered, and accused of being a "chemist" by the authorities.
He has always denied being a drug trafficker, saying he was installing machinery in what he thought was an acrylic factory.
Initially sentenced to life in prison, he had his sentence reviewed by the Indonesia's supreme court and changed to death on appeal.
He was due to be executed alongside eight others in 2015 but was granted a reprieve after Paris applied pressure and the Indonesian authorities allowed an outstanding appeal to proceed.
Atlaoui's case attracted attention in Indonesia and in France, where supporters saw him as a symbol of the fight against the death penalty.
France abolished capital punishment in 1981.
Pressure applied by the French government was key to her husband's release, Sabine Atlaoui said.
"It's very clear that diplomatic efforts during all those years allowed my husband to return," she said.
Indonesia, which has some of the world's toughest drug laws, has recently released several high-profile detainees, including a Filipina mother on death row and the last five members of the so-called "Bali Nine" drug ring.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
France 24
an hour ago
- France 24
Moldova ex-minister charged in Interpol corruption case
French prosecutors say they suspect a multinational group of conspirators paid millions of dollars to public officials to sabotage Interpol red notices issued against selected suspects. Vitalie Pirlog, who chaired the commission controlling Interpol's files, was arrested on Tuesday in the United Arab Emirates on the basis of an international arrest warrant issued by France. He was extradited to France on Friday on charges including organised fraud and evading arrest, said the source, confirming a report in the French daily, Le Monde. Another source close to the case said Pirlog was suspected of having helped suspects get asylum-seeker status in Moldova so as to force the suspension of their red notices. Red notices are international alerts for suspected criminals. Pirlog's lawyer, Emmanuel Marsigny, told AFP the French arrest warrant was "incomprehensible" as his client had given the French financial prosecutors his address in the UAE. He had been waiting to be summoned for questioning as provided for by international conventions, he added. "Mr Pirlog is certainly not someone who wanted to evade justice -- quite the contrary," said Marsigny. Interpol said that after it had detected an attempt to "block and delete red notices" in a small number of cases, it had reported the matter to the authorities in France. The French authorities in early 2025 opened an investigation into suspected corruption within Interpol. The international law enforcement agency's headquarters are based in Lyon, southeast France. French financial prosecutor Jean-Francois Bohnert said his team suspected a group of people of different nationalities had bribed certain officials to block and delete red notices targeting certain fugitives. The sums involved could run to several million dollars, he added.
France 24
2 hours ago
- France 24
France opens probe into systemic failures behind paedophile surgeon's decades of child abuse
France has opened a judicial inquiry into systemic failures that allowed a convicted paedophile to practise as a surgeon for years while repeatedly abusing children in his care, a prosecutor said Friday. A French court in May sentenced retired doctor Joël Le Scouarnec to 20 years in prison after he confessed to sexually abusing or raping 298 patients between 1989 and 2014. Of those, more than 250 victims were under 15. Victims and child rights advocates say the case highlights systemic flaws that allowed Le Scouarnec to repeatedly commit sexual crimes. Le Scouarnec has been in prison since a court convicted him in 2020 of abusing four children, including two of his nieces. Stephane Kellenberger, prosecutor in the western city of Lorient, said he had ordered an investigation last month into any failures to prevent the crimes. The new probe by an investigating magistrate, which follows a preliminary probe ordered in 2020, would be able to include any relevant elements from the latest trial. An AFP investigation published before the trial showed Le Scouarnec practised medicine for years despite a 2005 sentence for owning sexually abusive images of children, and both a colleague and a regional hospital official reporting him as unfit to practise. When Le Scouarnec was promoted in 2006, his criminal record did not appear to have been updated and was still blank, according to documents from local and regional health agencies, AFP reporting found. Following a regional investigation into a suspicious death at the hospital where he worked, Le Scouarnec moved to the southwest of the country. Investigators only uncovered his alleged crimes after he retired in 2017, when a six-year-old girl accused him of rape and police found countless accounts of abuse in his diaries. During the trial, the National Order of Physicians – a civil party in the case – said it "regretted" what it described as "dysfunctions" that allowed him to continue to practise. A collective of the former surgeon's victims said a telephone hotline was launched on Thursday to provide support to victims, relatives and professionals who have followed the case. Investigators are also looking into whether there are more victims.
France 24
6 hours ago
- France 24
'Witnesses to despair': Marseille sees poverty fuel cocaine problem
The scene, on the central Belsunce Square near the busy Old Port, plays out daily, an illustration of the second-biggest French city's massive drug problem. On pavements, in doorways and in parking lots, more users than ever can be seen shooting up cocaine or smoking crack. Many aimlessly wander the streets of the Mediterranean port city, which became notorious decades ago for its role as a heroin hub in the so-called "French connection" trade route, and today cannot get a grip on a thriving narcotics business. At lunchtime, a man lay sprawled on the street outside the parking lot of a shopping centre, two needles sticking out of his right arm. "You see more and more young people and women," said Youcef Mahi, a janitor. "I'm not judging. We are witnesses to despair." Crack 'drives you crazy' The city's budget for cleaning up after the addicts has risen six-fold to reach 152,000 euros ($177,000) this year, outweighing public subsidies for NGOs dedicated to reducing risks for drug users. But Antoine Henry, who runs the ASUD association to keep addicts safe, said more money should be funnelled into projects such as his. By his estimates, "2,000 users live in the streets of central Marseille, most of them without a home or income, often carrying infections, with no access to benefits, and sometimes undocumented." He said the sharp increase is partly due to overall rising poverty in what is already France's lowest-income large city, with the proliferation of downtown dealing spots over the past two years also to blame. Such spots are outposts of the main dealing rings located in low-income housing estates, and closer to socially vulnerable consumers who buy their cocaine there, usually for 10 euros ($11.60) a pop. On one Marseille street, a young lookout, called "chouf" (Arabic for 'look'), had taken up his post, only a few dozen metres from the main Canebiere thoroughfare and its municipal police headquarters. One 36-year-old woman, who did not want to be identified, told AFP that she lives in the street, except when she is in prison. She was seriously ill, shivering below her parka despite the hot July sun. She shoots cocaine, but does not smoke crack because, she said, "that drives you crazy". She said she tries to stay clear of police and doctors, but also of dealers and their gangland fights and shootouts. Marseille and its surrounding region are plagued by a turf war over lucrative drug points. In 2023, 49 deaths linked to drug trafficking were recorded in Marseille in connection with gang warfare, and 24 in 2024. Clean syringes, rapid tests Joachim Levy regularly seeks out the woman when he and his colleagues from the Nouvelle Aube (New Dawn) association roam the streets in search of people in need of help. He has constantly urged her to accept treatment. "Otherwise you're going to die here," he said. At the foot of a building, a small group, like dozens of others in the neighbourhood, was cooking crack and crushing pills. In contrast to Paris, crack is rarely sold ready to consume here. Instead, users concoct it themselves by heating cocaine with ammonia. From his backpack, Levy handed out sealed syringes, pipes, disinfectant wipes and bicarbonate, which he said is "less harmful" than ammonia. A few streets away, a team from Nouvelle Aube were talking with men sheltering under the A7 highway. "We offer rapid testing for HIV and hepatitis -- and direct them to the hospital if needed. They no longer have their own survival strategies," said Marie-Lou, a member of the association who did not give her surname. 'Poverty, isolation' A young woman, wearing glittery sneakers, a tight skirt and a handbag, turned a staircase corner. She told Levy about her mounting debt and her temporary accommodation with her child "at an ex's place". She used to smoke, and "snort a little", but then she turned to crack and soon realised she "was hooked". Levy told the woman "to call anytime". The biggest problem for people in her situation, he said, is not the actual drug use. "It's the poverty, the isolation, the street violence, the mental health issues -- this is where we need to start," he said. Levy believes supervised consumption facilities -- spaces where users can take their drugs safely -- could be "an excellent solution" to some of these issues. Such "shoot-up rooms", as critics often call them, operate in several countries, including Germany, Norway, the Netherlands and Australia. No 'shoot-up room' Perrine Roux is research director at the INSERM health and medical research body, which has published an evaluation of France's only two experimental facilities in Paris and Strasbourg. "All scientific studies, in France and abroad, have shown the usefulness of such facilities," she said. "But nobody pays much attention to science, and that's very concerning." The interior ministry shut down a plan to open such a facility in Marseille after complaints from some residents and local politicians. On Thursday, the regional prefect announced an action plan against drug trafficking and related crimes, involving the deployment of additional police and anti-riot units "to give the dealing points a pounding", and of 310 extra security cameras. Meanwhile in Belsunce Square, the water fountain has stopped working, a fact welcomed by one resident. "Now that there's no water for them anymore, we may see less of the druggies," she said.
