France in bid to stop drugs execution

France says it will take “all available steps” to try to stop Indonesia from executing a man for his role in making millions of tablets of the illegal recreational drug ecstasy.

Indonesia’s Supreme Court sentenced Frenchman Serge Atlaoui and eight other men - Chinese, Dutch and Indonesian citizens – to death on Tuesday for their roles in running a factory producing the drug.

Atlaoui, speaking by phone to France’s RTL radio, indicated that he would prefer the death penalty to spending many years behind bars.

“I’m more afraid to live than to be shot,” he said, referring to his sentence. “The pain is shorter for everybody. At first, it’s hard to accept – that’s for sure – but if I have to spend the rest of my life or 30 years here, that’s not a life. That’s not called living.”

Atlaoui said he had taken work at the factory “to do tests on chemicals” and would never have done so if he had been told it was to make illegal drugs. However, he added: “I’m not totally pure.”