A French national on death row in Indonesia is facing execution once more after a local court on Monday rejected his appeal to overturn Indonesian President Joko Widodo's refusal to grant him clemency.
Presiding judge Ujang Abdullah of the Administrative Court in Jakarta said the court has no judicial authority over the appeal of Serge Atlaoui, 51, because granting clemency is the prerogative of the president.
"The President's right to grant clemency is granted by the constitution while the authority of Administrative Court is just to judge on decrees issued by administrative officials," Abdullah said, according to Jakarta Post.
Atlaoui's appeal followed a last-minute reprieve that excluded him from the execution in April of eight foreigners convicted of drug crimes. The foreigners were executed by firing squad.
The Attorney General's Office had said Atlaoui's appeal was the final legal option available to him. But Atlaoui's lawyer, Nancy Yuliana Sunjoto, told reporters outside the Administrative Court after the ruling was announced that they would still look for other legal remedy.
"From the beginning, we have known that he didn't do anything wrong," Sunjoto said, according to Reuters.
French President Francois Hollande had warned Indonesia of diplomatic consequences if Atlaoui is executed. The French government also complained that Atlaoui's trial was improperly done.
"Abolishing the death penalty is for us an absolute principle. For Serge Atlaoui, death cannot be the ultimate sanction," Hollande said at an emergency EU summit on migrants in Brussels in April, according to Euractiv.com.
Atlaoui was arrested during a raid of a secret ecstasy factory outside Jakarta in 2005. He professed innocence, claiming he was a welding technician installing machinery in what he thought was an acrylic factory and was not aware that the chemicals were drug ingredients.
Police, however, said he was a chemist in the factory.
The court sentenced Atlaoui to death in 2007.
