A Filipino woman who spent nearly 15 years on death row in Indonesia and was nearly executed by firing squad is on her way home.
Mary Jane Veloso was sentenced to death in 2010 after she was found with 2.6kg of heroin at an Indonesian airport.
But the 39-year-old mother of two has always maintained she was tricked into having the drugs on her person.
She was handed over to Philippine authorities on Tuesday evening after the two governments reached an agreement allowing her to return home.
“This is a new life for me and I will have a new start in the Philippines,” she said at a news conference, adding that she wanted to spend Christmas with her family.
“I have to go home because I have a family there, my children are waiting for me.”
While the agreement stipulates that Ms. Veloso will return as a prisoner, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos could grant her a reprieve.
Ms. Veloso was arrested at Yogyakarta Airport in April 2010.
She said she was convinced by the daughter of one of her godparents to travel to Indonesia to start a new job as a maid.
She claimed the woman’s male friends gave her new clothes and a new bag that, unbeknownst to her, had heroin sewn into it.
In 2015, she was scheduled to face the firing squad, but the Philippine government secured a last-minute reprieve for her after the woman suspected of recruiting her was arrested and tried on human trafficking charges while Ms. Veloso was testifying Charge was named.
Her reprieve came so late that several newspapers in the Philippines covered it with front pages and headlines.
Ms. Veloso’s case drew widespread public sympathy in the Philippines, which has no death penalty.
Her circumstances were known to many in the Philippines, where it is common for women to escape poverty by seeking work as domestic helpers abroad.
“I bring a lot of things with me, for example guitar, books, knitwear… even this T-shirt I’m wearing was given by my friends,” she said as she left the prison and headed to the airport.
Their transfer comes just days after the five remaining members of The infamous “Bali Nine” drug ring returned home after almost 20 years in Indonesian prisons.
