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France, Australia protest Indonesian death sentences on nationals

French Foreign Affairs Minister Laurent Fabius on Wednesday summoned Indonesia’s ambassador to Paris to express “extreme concern” over the case of a French national condemned to death on drug charges in the country. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot upped the pressure over the cases of two of his nationals who may also face a firing squad.

French national Serge Atlaoui with his wife, Sabine.
French national Serge Atlaoui with his wife, Sabine. AFP
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Fabius reminded ambassador Hotmangadjara Pandjaitan of France’s “firm opposition to the death penalty” while “respecting Indonesian sovereignty”, a foreign affairs ministry statement said on Tuesday.

He expressed Paris’s “extreme concern” over the case of Serge Atlaoui, a 51-year-old French man arrested in an ecstasy laboratory, which he says he believed was an acrylics factory, in 2005 and condemned to death in 2007.

An appeal for a pardon was recently rejected and, although he appealed for a retrial last week, Indonesian law allows for him to be executed at any time after pardon has been refused.

French President François Hollande wrote to Indonesian President Joko Widodo in January, asking for a stay of execution, but Widodo declared in October that no pardons would be issued in drug cases.

He judges that there is a state of emergency in his country regarding narcotics, with dozens of deaths reported every day.

The death sentence was carried out for the first time since 2013 on 18 January when six people, five of the foreigners, executed, prompting protests in their countries origin.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott hinted that his country’s relations with Jakarta could be harmed by the execution of two Australian nationals, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, on death row after being found guilty of heroin trafficking.

"I don't want to prejudice the best possible relations with a very important friend and neighbour,” he said on Wednesday. "But I've got to say that we can't just ignore this kind of thing, if the perfectly reasonable representations that we are making to Indonesia are
ignored by them."

Indonesia reacted angrily to Abbott’s statement.

"What I know is this: threats are not part of diplomatic language and from what I know no one responds well to threats," foreign ministry spokesperson Arrmanatha Nasir told reporters.
 

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