Death row inmate makes last-ditch plea to return to home country

A Frenchman who is on death row in Indonesia has made a last-ditch plea to return home - as the country's new president plans to pardon 44,000 prisoners.

Serge Atlaoui, who reportedly has cancer, was arrested in 2005 for his involvement in a factory making the drug MDMA, also known as ecstasy, on the outskirts of the capital Jakarta.

The 61-year-old's lawyers have said he was employed as a welder at the site and did not understand what the chemicals on the premises were used for.

The father-of-four has spent almost 20 years in prison in Indonesia and was due to be executed by a 13-member firing squad in 2015 before he won a last-minute reprieve.

Earlier this year, he wrote to the Indonesian government asking to be allowed to serve the rest of his sentence in his home country, according to Yusril Ihza Mahendra, Indonesia's coordinating minister for law, human rights, immigration and corrections.

It is not clear how much time he will spend in prison if he is sent back to France - a country which does not have the death penalty.

Atlaoui, currently in a Jakarta prison, was initially jailed for life but the Indonesian Supreme Court increased the sentence to death in 2007.

His case has drawn attention in France, which vigorously opposes the death penalty "in all places and under all circumstances".

New president's clemency plan

In a joint news conference with French ambassador Fabien Penone on Friday, Mr Mahendra said: "We are forwarding a personal request from Serge Atlaoui to the Indonesian government which of course should be responded by the French government, because this concerns the transfer of a prisoner."

Mr Mahendra said the process could take time because there has been no official request from the French government.

Mr Penone said Mr Mahendra has briefed him about the case and that he is working with the Indonesian government.

It comes as Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has surprised the nation with his clemency plan barely two months after he took office.

Past Indonesian leaders have rarely used the presidential prerogative of giving amnesty to criminals.

Law minister Supratman Andi Agtas has said 44,000 prisoners nationwide may get an amnesty on humanitarian grounds and to help relieve the country's overcrowded jails.

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Filipina inmate returns to home country

On Sunday, five Australians who were members of the Bali Nin drug smuggling ring returned to their home country after spending almost 20 years in Indonesia prisons under a deal struck between the two countries' governments.

Meanwhile, Indonesia's government returned Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina woman who was on death row for drug trafficking, to finish her sentence in the Philippines on Wednesday after longstanding requests from her home country.

Atlaoui, from the city of Metz in northeast France, has maintained his innocence during his 19 years in prison.

He claimed that he was installing machinery in what he thought was an acrylics plant.

Indonesia is 'major drug smuggling hub'

Police accused him of being a "chemist" at the site.

Indonesia executed eight others in May 2015, but Atlaoui was granted a stay of execution because he still had an outstanding court appeal.

An administrative court in Jakarta denied his last court appeal the following month.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says Indonesia is a major drug smuggling hub despite having some of the strictest drug laws in the world, in part because international drug syndicates target its young population.

About 530 people are on death row in Indonesia, mostly for drug-related crimes, including nearly 100 foreigners, the country's ministry of immigration and corrections' data showed last month.

Indonesia's last executions, of a citizen and three foreigners, were carried out in July 2016.