May 20, 2019

ECPM deplores the death sentence imposed on the French citizen Félix Dorfin by an Indonesian court, whereas the initial sentence required by the Prosecutor's Office was 20 years' imprisonment and a fine of €620,000.

The 35-year-old Frenchman Félix Dorfin, from Béthune (Pas-de-Calais), was sentenced to death for drug trafficking in Indonesia on 20 May 2019 by Judge Isnurul Syamsul Arif at the Mataram court on the island of Lombok.

ECPM deplores this conviction of the judge, who far exceeds the initial request of the prosecutor, who had requested 20 years' imprisonment and a fine of 10 billion rupees (' 620,000), or failing that, an additional year's imprisonment. Félix Dorfin's lawyer, Deny Nur Indra, has indicated that he will appeal.

ECPM's Chief Executive Officer, Raphaël Chenuil-Hazan, "once again regrets the use of the death penalty a few weeks after the last elections. The Indonesian government cannot pretend that nothing has changed since the last wave of executions in 2015-2016. He recalled that today, it is internationally accepted that the death penalty is not effective in the fight against drug trafficking.

According to ECPM's local partners, this conviction shows that the government (which has not executed a convicted person since 2016) is not prepared to impose a moratorium on the death penalty, while it is preparing a reform of the Criminal Code in which it said it wanted to find alternatives to the death penalty.

ECPM expects France, in Jakarta and Quai d'Orsay, to provide unfailing support to Félix Dorfin, as must be the case for any French citizen in the same situation.

 

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Indonesia's anti-drug legislation is among the most restrictive in the world, and traffickers face long prison sentences and even the death penalty. While the last execution was in 2016, 48 people were sentenced to death in Indonesia in 2018, including 15 foreigners convicted of drug trafficking, and at the end of 2018, there were 308 convicted on Indonesian death row.

Félix Dorfin is now the second French national sentenced to death in Indonesia, since Serge Atlaoui, also convicted in 2007 of drug trafficking, is still on Indonesian death row.