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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.

Japan | Death penalty demanded for man charged with 9 murders

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Japanese prosecutors have demanded the death penalty for a 30-year-old man charged with murdering nine people at his apartment in the city of Zama, near Tokyo.

Prosecutors demanded the death sentence for Shiraishi Takahiro at the Tachikawa branch of the Tokyo District Court on Thursday.

Shiraishi is charged with killing 1 man and 8 women, aged 15 to 26, whose remains were found at his apartment in October 2017.

Shiraishi is charged with killing the victims, stealing their belongings and abandoning their remains in coolers. 

He is also charged with sexually assaulting the female victims.

He has pleaded guilty to the charges.


However, his defense team has argued that the victims had agreed to be killed.


In demanding the death penalty on Thursday, prosecutors said all the victims fiercely resisted when Shiraishi strangled them, and this clearly shows that they did not want to be killed.

Prosecutors also said the defendant's testimonies in court are natural and logical and consistent with the objective facts. 

They said it's obvious that the credibility of his testimonies cannot be denied.

The court is expected to hand down its ruling on December 15.

Source: nhk.or.jp, Staff, November 26, 2020


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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: Japan
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