Serge Atlaoui's lawyer to request presidential pardon, calling for head of state's "humanity"

For Serge Atlaoui, sentenced to death in 2007 in Indonesia, it is the last resort. Transferred to France on February 4 for "humanitarian reasons" according to the Indonesian Minister of Justice, the 61-year-old prisoner was tried by the Pontoise judicial court, which commuted his death sentence to 30 years of imprisonment - the highest penalty provided for by the Penal Code - a few days after his transfer. But, according to Richard Sédillot, the prisoner's lawyer, the road is not over. In an interview with Le Parisien , he confided that he was asking for a presidential pardon, appealing to the "humanity" and "authority" of the head of state.

Maître Sédillot hopes for a reduction in his client's sentence: "I will of course contact the sentencing judge and request a reduction in the sentence," he announced. However, the lawyer is clear-sighted: the sentence was served "in a country that is not linked to France by any convention on the matter," and adaptation to French law can be complex. Asking the head of state for a "presidential pardon" is therefore important for the lawyer: "only Emmanuel Macron can ensure that an end is put to the ordeal that he has been going through for 19 years."

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In 2005, the welder was arrested by the Indonesian authorities while working in a factory near Jakarta. Found guilty of drug trafficking, the Frenchman was initially sentenced to life in prison, before seeing his sentence increased by the Indonesian Supreme Court: in 2007, the death penalty was handed down to Serge Atlaoui.

Death row syndrome - the name given to the emotional distress that affects those sentenced to death while awaiting execution - then struck the welder. "His coffin had been made," the lawyer explained. In his cell "reserved for those whose execution is imminent," Serge Atlaoui waited for death for 17 years, "with the certainty that he would be next," his lawyer lamented. But pressure from Paris on the Indonesian authorities postponed the final act, and an appeal was left pending.

Subject to health problems - his lawyer has remained discreet on the subject -, Serge Atlaoui's return to France blows like a wind of hope. In court, the man who has "always proclaimed his innocence" announced that he wanted "just to be reunited with my family". The Frenchman's irreproachable attitude in detention, his "courage" and his "dignity" are all "elements" that could play "in favor" of the head of state's decision, his lawyer hopes.