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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.

Taiwan constitutional court declines death row inmates' appeal for review

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Court says appeal not filed within time frame required by law

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s constitutional court has declined to review an additional appeal lodged by 37 death row inmates on the grounds that it was submitted too late.

The 37 condemned inmates filed the appeal on Feb. 27, which was in addition to an already lodged appeal that the constitutional court will review beginning April 23, per CNA. 

The supplementary appeal sought to argue that certain provisions in the Code of Criminal Procedure and Taiwan’s regulations for carrying out executions should be subject to constitutional review.

The court rejected the supplementary appeal on Monday (March 18), considering it was not submitted within the timeframes laid out in the Constitutional Court Procedure Act. 

The act states that appeals must either be submitted before the act was passed, or within six months of its passing – a deadline the inmates did not meet.

The group of 37 death row inmates includes Wang Hsin-fu (王信福), a man who the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty says is innocent of the crime for which he was sentenced to death.

Source: taiwannews.com.tw, Staff, March 18, 2024

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