New Delhi: A French national, serving jail sentence and suffering from AIDS, on February 11 got Presidential pardon that will remit his remaining four-year term and set him free to go home.

Vincent Moreau, undergoing 10 years' rigorous imprisonment at Tihar jail for drug trafficking, had requested for clemency citing his health condition and in a humanitarian gesture, the government allowed his plea.

The President, exercising his special powers accepted the request and remitted the rest of his sentence, prison sources said.

In his order received by the jail authorities on February 11, Kalam directed that his custody be handed over to the French Embassy in Delhi and he be repatriated to his home country immediately, they said.

Moreau was held at the Delhi airport and was booked under Narcotic Drug and Psychotropic Substances Prevention Act, they said. He was awarded the sentence by an additional district and sessions judge.

Incidentally, the development comes immediately at the end of the India visit by French Prime Minister Jean Pierre Raffarin.

At present, 315 foreigners are imprisoned in Tihar jail, of whom 57 are Pakistanis, 52 Bangladeshis and 92 Nepalese.

PTI