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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.

Iran: 8 hanged in Shiraz’s Adelabad Prison

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Iran Human Rights, February 19: Eight prisoners were hanged in Shiraz’s Adelabad Prison early this morning. According to the official website of the Iranian judiciary in the province of Fars, eight prisoners, among them one woman, were hanged this morning. The prisoners were all convicted of drug-related charges, said the report.

The prisoners were identified as "Lotfollah J.", "Noor Mohammad Sh.", "Abbas N.", "Hossein A.", "Parinaz M." (woman), "Hamid A.", "Abdolvahed M." and "Ali T."

According to sources in Iran, families of the prisoners were informed that the executions would be carried out on February 20, but Iranian authorities carried out the executions one day earlier without notice.

Iran Human Rights (IHR) had issued an urgent action about the scheduled execution of 12 prisoners in Shiraz. There is no information currently available on the location or condition of the remaining four prisoners. They could be executed tomorrow or in the coming days.

IHR strongly condemns today’s executions in Shiraz. Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the spokesperson of IHR, said: "The international community must condemn the execution wave in Iran. Iranian authorities execute more than one person every day without being faced with appropriate international reactions."

Source: Iran Human Rights, Feb. 19, 2013
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