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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.

Iraq sentenced 616 foreigners for IS links in 2018

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Iraq sentenced more than 600 foreigners including many women and dozens of minors in 2018 for belonging to the Islamic State group, the judiciary said on Monday.

Iraq declared "victory" over IS at the end of 2017 after a 3-year war against the jihadists, who once controlled nearly 1/3 of the country as well as swathes of neighbouring Syria.

Around 20,000 people suspected of links to IS have been arrested since 2014.

Judicial spokesman Abdel Sattar Bayraqdar said Monday that "616 men and women accused of belonging to IS have been put on trial" in 2018 and sentenced under Iraq' s anti-terrorism law.

They comprised 466 women, 42 men and 108 minors, he said.

Bayraqdar did not, however specify the punishments.

Under Iraq's anti-terrorism law courts can issue verdicts, including death sentences, against anyone found guilty of belonging to the jihadist group, including non-combatants.

In April, judicial sources said that more than 300 suspects linked to IS had received death sentences and more than 300 others were sentenced to life, which in Iraq is equivalent to 20 years.

Most of the women sentenced for IS links were from Turkey and republics of the former Soviet Union.

3 French citizens -- 2 women and a man -- have been sentenced to life imprisonment while a German woman, a Belgian man and a Russian man have been sentenced to death.

Many women had travelled to Iraq with their children to join their husbands who fought in the ranks of IS.

Some are still waiting to be repatriated to their home countries.

On Sunday, 30 Russian children whose mothers are in prison in Iraq for links to IS were flown from Baghdad to Moscow as part of a repatriation programme championed by Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov.

Source: al-monitor.com, December 31, 2018


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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
Location: Iraq
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