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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.

Saudi beheads Chadian national over drug trafficking

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The Saudi Press Agency on Tuesday reported the kingdom had beheaded Abdulkarim Ibrahim Mousa Abkar, a Chadian national convicted of smuggling drugs. It was the fourteenth such execution in Saudi Arabia since the start of the new year.

Those convicted of charges that include murder, rape, drug trafficking, apostasy, sorcery and witchcraft could be brought to the block in Saudi Arabia, which adheres to an extreme form of Islamic law.

Saudi Arabia has one of the highest state execution rates in the world. The kingdom put down at least 82 people in 2011 according to Amnesty International. Seventy-six people were beheaded in the kingdom last year according to an AFP tally, while Human Rights Watch has put the number at 69.

The kingdom has brushed off international calls for the kingdom to abolish the policy of beheading.

Source: Agence France-Presse, February 2013
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