Yahoo – AFP,
22 April 2015
 |
French drug
trafficker Serge Atlaoui is escorted by Indonesian police commandos
following a
court hearing in Tangerang, on March 11, 2015 (AFP Photo/Romeo Gacad)
|
French
President Francois Hollande warned Indonesia on Wednesday that the execution of
a Frenchman for drug offences would damage ties between the two nations.
Foreign
Minister Laurent Fabius also summoned the Indonesian ambassador in Paris a day
after Serge Atlaoui, 51, had an appeal rejected by Indonesia's Supreme Court,
taking him closer to execution by firing squad for his role in a clandestine
ecstasy lab near Jakarta.
Imprisoned
in Indonesia for a decade, the father-of-four denies the charges, saying he was
installing industrial machinery in what he thought was an acrylics factory.
Atlaoui's
wife Sabine told AFP she had been the one to break the news of the rejected
appeal to him.
"I
spoke to him on the phone this morning," she said from Indonesia.
"He
called me from prison and... I finally was able to give him the terrible news.
"My
husband is strong, he is a fighter, brave and ready to continue fighting until
the end."
His family
has issued impassioned appeals in recent days, begging Hollande and the
European Union to save him.
The French
leader warned Wednesday that executing Atlaoui "would be damaging for
Indonesia, damaging for the relations that we would like to have with it."
If put to
death, Atlaoui would be the first Frenchman to be executed anywhere in nearly
40 years.
He is one
of several foreign drug convicts on death row in Indonesia who recently lost
appeals for presidential clemency. They are expected to be executed once final
legal appeals are resolved.
Indonesia
unlikely to budge
Drug laws
in Indonesia are among the world's toughest.
President
Joko Widodo, who took office in October, has been a vocal supporter of putting
drug traffickers to death, saying the country is facing a narcotics emergency.
In January,
the country executed six people accused of drug trafficking, including
Brazilian and Dutch nationals.
As such,
analysts say France's repeated calls for clemency have little chance of
succeeding.
"Politically,
he (Widodo) has understood that Indonesians want a firm leader, and he wants to
show that he is a firm president, compared to his predecessor (Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono) who was known for his indecision," said political analyst
Yohanes Sulaiman.
Added to
this, the death penalty has considerable support in Indonesia among the elites
and wider population.
According
to a poll conducted by the Indo Barometer agency among 1,200 people last month,
more than 84 percent of those questioned were in favour of sentencing drug
traffickers to death.
In any
case, it is unlikely that France or other countries whose nationals are also on
death row -- such as Australia -- will impose any serious sanctions on
Indonesia, Southeast Asia's biggest economy.
After the
first batch of executions in January, Brazil and the Netherlands recalled their
ambassadors in protest, though the diplomats came back after just a few weeks.
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