Indonesia issues Bali Nine execution orders, French inmate granted reprieve

Indonesia has granted a temporary reprieve to a French death row inmate due to be executed soon with nine other drug convicts, a French embassy official said on Saturday. Serge Atlaoui (pictured) was initially among a group of 10 inmates, which include nationals from Australia, Brazil, France, Ghana, Nigeria, and the Philippines, due to be executed soon by firing squad on the prison island of Nusakambangan. An official at the French embassy in Jakarta told Reuters it had been notified by the Attorney General’s Office that Atlaoui would not be in the next round of executions.

I am torn between an extreme sadness to learn that other condemned could be executed and the relief to learn that the man I was defending for eight years could at this stage be spared.

Richard Sedillot, Serge Atlaoui’s lawyer

At least three of 10 inmates have been given formal notice of their imminent execution. Two Australians, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, and a Philippines woman, Mary Jane Veloso were notified by Indonesian officials on Saturday. Under Indonesian law, convicts must be given 72 hours’ notice of execution, but no formal date has yet been set. France has told Indonesia the executions could damage relations, while Australia has pleaded repeatedly for clemency for Chan and Sukumaran, arrested as ringleaders of the so-called Bali Nine drug-smuggling group. Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said on Saturday that Indonesia had notified her government the execution of the two Australian men would be “scheduled imminently”.

Indonesian authorities today [Saturday] advised Australian consular officials that the executions of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran will be scheduled imminently at Nusa Kambangan prison in central Java.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said in a statement