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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.

Two people to be publicly executed by Taliban in eastern Afghanistan

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Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada last year ordered judges to fully implement all aspects of sharia -- including qisas punishment.

GHAZNI: Two people were due to be publicly executed in a football stadium in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, provincial officials said, in the third and fourth death penalties carried out since the Taliban returned to power.

The Ghazni province information and culture department said in a public notice that the execution was a qisas punishment -- equating to "an eye-for-an-eye" -- but did not initially provide details on the prisoners or their crimes.

Although public executions were common during the Taliban's first rule from 1996 to 2001, they have only carried out two others since surging back to power in August 2021. Both were for the crime of murder.

There have been regular public floggings for other crimes, however, including theft, adultery, and alcohol consumption.

Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada last year ordered judges to fully implement all aspects of sharia -- including qisas punishment.

The last execution was carried out in June 2023, when a convicted murderer was shot dead on the grounds of a mosque in Laghman province in front of some 2,000 people.

Source: Agence France-Presse, Staff, February 22, 2024

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