Indonesia set to repatriate Frenchman on death row for drug offences

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia was set to repatriate a Frenchman on Tuesday who has spent two decades on death row for drug offences, a senior minister said, joining a list of long-term prisoners sent home by Jakarta in recent months.

Serge Atlaoui, sentenced to death for being a chemist in an ecstasy factory, will depart from Jakarta with French authorities who have been in the capital since Saturday, law and human rights minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra said.

"As agreed with the French government, the transfer will occur on February 4," he said by text message on Tuesday.

Indonesia agreed to repatriate Atlaoui on "humanitarian" grounds because he was suffering from cancer, Yusril said when the two countries formally agreed on his repatriation last month.

The factory in the capital Jakarta was said to be capable of producing 100 kg (220.46 lb) of illegal ecstasy pills every week.

Atlaoui, jailed in Indonesia since 2005, has long maintained his innocen...