JAKARTA – Indonesian authorities have returned a Filipina woman to the Philippines who had been on death row and nearly executed by firing squad in Indonesia in 2015, after a longstanding request from her home country.
Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso had spent almost 15 years in prison for drug trafficking but won a last-minute reprieve that will lead to her testimony exposing how a criminal syndicate duped her into being an unwitting accomplice and drug courier.
Recommended Videos
Veloso was moved late Sunday from a female prison in Yogyakarta to Indonesia’s capital of Jakarta, then escorted Tuesday night for a flight to Manila. Her repatriation was made possible by a “practical arrangement” for the transfer of prisoners signed between the two countries on Dec. 6.
Her transfer removes the possibility of execution. The Philippines, Asia’s largest Roman Catholic nation, has long abolished the death penalty.
Veloso told reporters outside Pondok Bambu prison in Jakarta that she was overwhelmed by emotions. She said she was treated well by fellow inmates and prison officials during her 14 years of incarceration and had many souvenirs including a guitar, books, knitting and rosaries.
“Thank you, Indonesia, I love Indonesia,” Veloso said, forming a heart with her fingers.
In a news conference at the airport, she thanked Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto and his government, as well as Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., for their efforts to send her home to serve the rest of her sentence in her country.
“I am grateful to God who has answered my prayers,” Veloso said while trying to hold in sobs. “I will return to my country, and I am sure and believe that God has a beautiful plan for my life.”
Eduardo Jose De Vega, the undersecretary for migration affairs at the Philippines Foreign Affairs Department, said her transfer was evidence of the success of diplomacy between the countries in upholding the principles of the supremacy of law and respect for human rights.
Indonesia’s senior minister of law, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, has said that “if the Philippines want to pardon Veloso or grant clemency, that is entirely their authority and we must also respect.”
Under the agreement, Veloso is banned from entering Indonesian territory for life.
Veloso, who will turn 40 next month, was arrested in 2010 at an airport in Yogyakarta, where officials discovered about 2.6 kilograms (5.7 pounds) of heroin hidden in her luggage.
The conviction and death sentence for the single mother of two sons caused an outcry in the Philippines.
She had traveled to Indonesia where a recruiter, Maria Kristina Sergio, reportedly told her a job as a domestic worker awaited her. Sergio also allegedly provided the suitcase where the drugs were found.
In 2015, Indonesia moved Veloso to an island prison where she and eight other drug convicts were scheduled to be executed despite objections from their home countries Australia, Brazil, France, Ghana and Nigeria.
Indonesia executed the others but Veloso was granted a stay of execution because Sergio had been arrested in the Philippines two days earlier.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says Indonesia is a major drug smuggling hub despite having some of the strictest drug laws in the world, in part because international drug syndicates target its young population.
About 530 people are on death row in Indonesia, mostly for drug-related crimes, including 96 foreigners, the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections’ data showed last month. Indonesia’s last executions, of a citizen and three foreigners, were carried out in July 2016.
Five Australians who spent almost 20 years in Indonesian prisons for heroin trafficking returned to Australia on Sunday under a deal struck between the governments.
___
Associated Press journalist Achmad Ibrahim in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.