A Filipina who spent nearly 15 years on death row in Indonesia and was nearly executed by firing squad has returned home, where she is now in a women’s prison awaiting a possible pardon.
Mary Jane Veloso39, landed early Wednesday after a Repatriation agreement between the two countries, which eliminated the threat of her execution since the Philippines has long abolished the death penalty.
The mother of two was arrested and sentenced to death in 2010 after it was discovered that there was 2.6 kilograms of heroin in a suitcase she was carrying.
She flew home without handcuffs on a commercial overnight flight alongside Filipino correctional officers after a ceremony in Jakarta marked “the end of a harrowing chapter in Veloso’s life,” the correctional department said in a statement.
Veloso was flanked by heavy security upon her arrival at the airport and transported directly to a women’s detention facility. Her family and dozens of supporters waiting outside the terminal chanting slogans such as “Grace for Mary Jane” and “Free, free Mary Jane” failed to greet Veloso when she arrived.
Prison guards later allowed Veloso’s family to spend time with her. Veloso’s two sons ran towards her and hugged her tightly when they met on the prison grounds.
“I hope that our President (Ferdinand Marcos) will pardon me so that I can return to my family. I was in prison in Indonesia for 15 years because of something I didn’t commit,” an emotional Veloso, who is still technically serving a life sentence, told reporters after undergoing a medical examination at the Manila Jail.
Victims of human trafficking
The conviction and death sentence for the single mother of two sons sparked outrage in the Philippines.
She had traveled to Indonesia, where a recruiter, Maria Kristina Sergio, reportedly told her that a job as a domestic worker was waiting for her. Sergio is also said to have provided the suitcase in which the drugs were found.
In 2015, Indonesia moved Veloso to an island prison where she and eight other drug inmates were to be executed, despite objections from their home countries of 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. She is accused of human trafficking and Veloso was named as a prosecution witness in the case.
Veloso became a figurehead for her country’s 10 million-strong economic diaspora, many of whom take jobs as domestic workers abroad to escape poverty at home.
Marcos said last month that Veloso’s story resonated in the Philippines: “A mother caught in the grip of poverty who makes a desperate decision that changes the course of her life.”
In a statement on Wednesday, Marcos thanked Indonesia for handing over custody of Veloso but made no mention of a pardon or clemency.
Under the agreement, Veloso’s life sentence now falls under the jurisdiction of the Philippines, “including the power to grant clemency, remission, amnesty and similar measures.”
“It is definitely on the table,” Justice Minister Raul Vasquez told reporters on Wednesday, adding that Veloso’s request for clemency would be “seriously examined.”
She will serve a life sentence unless she is pardoned, Vasquez added.
The Indonesian government has said it will respect any decision made by Manila.
The Veloso deal includes a “reciprocity clause”. “If Indonesia requests similar assistance in the future, the Philippines will comply with such request,” the agreement said.
There was intense speculation in the press that Indonesia would seek custody of Gregor Johann Haas, an Australian who was jailed on drug charges in the Philippines earlier this year.
He is also wanted in Jakarta for drug smuggling, which could earn him the death penalty.
About 530 people are on death row in Indonesia, mostly for drug offenses, including 96 foreigners, data from the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections showed last month. The last executions of a citizen and three foreigners in Indonesia took place in July 2016.
Five Australians The man who spent almost 20 years in Indonesian prisons for heroin trafficking returned to Australia on Sunday as part of a government-to-government agreement.
