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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 Arabia beheads Pakistani for drug trafficking

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Public execution in Saudi Arabia
Public execution in Saudi Arabia
RIYADH: Saudi authorities beheaded on Tuesday a Pakistani man convicted of smuggling drugs to the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom, the interior ministry said.

The man, who has not yet been named, was found guilty of attempting to smuggle an undisclosed amount of heroin that he had swallowed, the ministry said in a statement carried by SPA state news agency.

Om Nov 6 Saudi authorities beheaded a Pakistani man Jaafar Ghulam Ali in the eastern Qatif province after he was convicted of drug trafficking in the kingdom,

His beheading in the eastern city of Dammam brings to 72 the number of executions carried out in Saudi Arabia this year, according to an AFP count.

In 2012, the kingdom carried out 76 executions, according to a tally based on official figures. Human Rights Watch put the number at 69.

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery, homosexuality, witchcraft and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under the oil-rich Gulf state’s strict version of sharia, or Islamic law.

Source: Agence France-Presse, November 26, 2013
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