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Indonesia notifies convicts of execution, Frenchman granted temporary reprieve

A Frenchman on death row in Indonesia has been granted a temporary reprieve as eight other foreign drug convicts have been transferred to a high-security prison island to be executed by firing squad.

Serge Atlaoui has been granted a temporary reprieve from execution in Indonesia
Serge Atlaoui has been granted a temporary reprieve from execution in Indonesia REUTERS/Beawiharta
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Consular officials from Australia, Brazil, Nigeria and the Philippines were summoned to the island of Nusakambangan Saturday after the prisoners were given the legally required 72-hour notice of the executions.

Frenchman Serge Atlaoui, 51, was among the group to be put to death after losing an appeal to the Indonesian Supreme Court earlier this week. But officials told French news agency AFP Saturday that he will not be included in the batch of executions because he still has a legal appeal outstanding.

The move comes amid intense pressure from Paris on Jakarta. French President Francois Hollande had warned earlier Saturday of "consequences with France and Europe" if Atlaoui was put to death.

“We cannot accept this type of execution," he told reporters during a visit to Azerbaijan, adding that the consequences would be of a "diplomatic" nature.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo has previously ignored international condemnation over the executions, and says his country is grappling with a “drugs emergency”.

Some 200 protestors gathered in Paris Saturday, saying that they hoped for a lasting reprieve for Atlaoui.

Relatives of the prisoners who visited them on the Indonesian prison island, meanwhile, issued emotional pleas for their lives to be spared.

Australia has pleaded repeatedly for clemency for two of its citizens arrested as ringleaders of the so-called Bali Nine drug-smuggling group.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told reporters Saturday that Indonesia had notified her government the execution was “imminent".

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