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CRIME

Frenchman awaits fate as Indonesia executes eight

The fate of a Frenchman condemned to death in Indonesia appeared doomed on Wednesday, after eight fellow drug convicts were executed by a firing squad. The French president has warned Jakarta of consequences.

Frenchman awaits fate as Indonesia executes eight
Serge Atlaoui, who is facing execution, is led away by Indonesian police. Photo: AFP

France on Wednesday condemned the executions in Indonesia of seven foreign drug convicts and said it remained concerned about the fate of a Frenchman also on death row in the Asian country.

The government "reiterates its opposition to the death sentence, in all cases and all circumstances," said French foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal.

The French authorities "are fully mobilised to help Serge Atlaoui, whose situation remains very worrying," Nadal said in a statement, expressing his government's "solidarity" with the countries whose nationals were put to death.

Atlaoui, 51, was originally among the group set to be executed but was unexpectedly granted a temporary reprieve Saturday after Indonesia agreed to allow an outstanding legal appeal to run its course.

In defiance of a storm of international criticism, the Indonesian authorities went ahead early on Wednesday with the execution by firing squad of two Australians, a Brazilian, four Africans and one Indonesian, reports said.

A Filipina woman who was set to suffer the same punishment was however spared at the 11th hour.

French President Francois Hollande has warned that Indonesia would face diplomatic "consequences" if it pushed ahead with the execution of Atlaoui over drug trafficking offences.

CRIME

One dead, several injured in Paris suburb shooting

One person was killed and six injured overnight in a gritty northern Paris suburb in a shooting likely linked to drug trafficking, prosecutors and the mayor said Saturday.

One dead, several injured in Paris suburb shooting

The attack in a parking lot near a cultural centre at Sevran, which lies between central Paris and the city’s main airport Charles de Gaulle, took place around 11:45 pm (2145 GMT) Friday, prosecutors said.

Upon arriving on the scene, police found four injured people strewn on the ground. One died soon after and the three others were taken to hospitals in a serious condition, a police source said.

Three more people injured by bullets were later taken to hospital, the source said, adding that two men had arrived in the parking lot in a car and one of them got out and opened fire.

The attackers then fled.

Sevran mayor Stephane Blanchet told AFP “it was clearly a settling of scores linked to drug trafficking.”

“There is a need to establish order and eradicate trafficking,” he said. “Those idiots fired live bullets and did not heed appeals for calm”.

Police have opened an investigation into intentional homicide by an organised gang, they said. No arrests had been by Saturday morning.

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