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Indonesia | 14 years on death row: Timeline of Mary Jane Veloso’s ordeal and fight for justice

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MANILA, Philippines — The case of Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina on death row in Indonesia for drug trafficking, has spanned over a decade and remains one of the most high-profile legal battles involving an overseas Filipino worker. Veloso was arrested on April 25, 2010, at Adisucipto International Airport in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, after she was found in possession of more than 2.6 kilograms of heroin. She was sentenced to death in October – just six months after her arrest. Indonesia’s Supreme Court upheld the penalty in May 2011.

Behnoud Shojaee’s Lawyer Sentenced to One Year in Prison

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Iran’s Revolutionary Court has sentenced human rights lawyer Mohammad Oliyaifard (left) to a one year prison term under the charge of “propaganda against the system” for objecting to the execution of young offenders. Oliyaifard is well known for taking on pro bono child execution cases, and he is one of the lawyer’s who was assigned to the case of executed child offender Behnoud Shojaee (Mohammad Mostafaei was the other lawyer).

Three meetings were held in branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court to discuss Mohammad Oliyaifard’s case. In the first meeting, Oliyaifard filed an appeal that was not accepted by the court.

Afterwards, Mohammad Oliyaifard also met with the judiciary who explained to him that they don’t ”execute,” they ”retribute” [The term retribute is most likely used in the context that the regime is collecting the lives of those sentenced to execution as just payment for punishable crimes].

At the United Nations gathering in Geneva on February 15, 2010, delegates from the Islamic Republic repeatedly stressed to representatives from other countries that no one in Iran is imprisoned for defending human rights. Mahmoud Abbaszadeh Meshkini, the director-general for political affairs of the Ministry of Interior, stressed, “We state explicitly that no one in Iran is arrested for being a human rights activist.”


Source: Persian2English, Feb. 21, 2010
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