China executes French citizen born in Laos

Frenchman Chan Tao Fumi, sentenced to death in China in 2010 for drug trafficking, was executed in the southern city of Guangzhou, the French Foreign Ministry said, AFP reported.

The 62-year-old French citizen born in Laos was executed “despite the mobilization of the French authorities, including to obtain a pardon on humanitarian grounds“, the ministry said in a statement, confirming France's opposition to the death penalty “everywhere and under all circumstances“ and calls for its “universal abolition“.

“We particularly regret that Mr. Chan's defense was not allowed to attend the last hearing, which constitutes a violation of the rights of the person concerned“, the ministry added.

Chan Tao Fumi was initially sentenced to life imprisonment after his arrest in 2005, but was later retried after “new evidence“ emerged and sentenced to death by a Guangzhou court for the production, transportation, smuggling and trafficking of methamphetamine. He is accused of being part of a network that produced tons of this synthetic drug in China between 1999 and 2003.

According to the association “Together Against the Death Penalty“ As of 2025, he was one of four French people on death row worldwide, along with Nora Lalam, sentenced in 2005 in Algeria, Stéphane Apt Idir and Redouane Hammadi, sentenced in Morocco for a 1994 bombing in Marrakech.

Another Frenchman sentenced to death in Indonesia in 2007, Serge Atlaoui, was transferred to France in February 2025 following a diplomatic agreement, and a French court commuted his sentence to 30 years in prison. He was released in July.

In its latest report on the death penalty in 2024, Amnesty International said China was the "world's leading executing country", with "thousands of people sentenced to death and executed" each year. China does not publish official statistics on the use of the death penalty, which is considered a state secret, notes Agence France-Presse.