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 (center), a Frenchman on death row in Indonesia since 2007 for drug offenses, looks on during a press conference at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, after leaving Salemba prison ahead of his repatriation to France on Feb. 4. (Photo: AFP)

Jakarta and Paris agreed to his transfer. In the agreement, Jakarta said Atlaoui was allowed to be returned on "humanitarian grounds" because he was ill. Atlaoui was driven from Salemba prison in Jakarta and escorted to the city's main airport on Tuesday,

Indonesia has handed over to French authorities a man on death row for drug offences who will start his return to his home country late on Tuesday, the latest in a series of foreign drug convicts repatriated from the Southeast Asian nation.

A French national held on death row in Indonesia since 2007 for drug offences is returning to France on Tuesday as part of an agreement made between both countries. Serge Atlaoui, 61, was accused of being a "chemist" by Indonesian authorities and arrested in 2005 at a factory in Jakarta, where dozens of kilos (pounds) of drugs were found.

A Frenchman on death row in Indonesia since 2007 for drug offences left prison on Tuesday ahead of his transfer to France, officials told AFP.

A Frenchman reprieved after 18 years on death row in Indonesia for alleged drug offences landed back in France on Wednesday, an airport source said. Indonesia has some of the world's toughest drug laws and has executed foreigners in the past.