Mary Jane Veloso to return to Philippines after 14-year imprisonment in Indonesia

BACK IN 2010, overseas Filipino worker (OFW) Mary Jane Veloso was arrested in Indonesia. She was convicted of drug trafficking after being caught carrying 2.6 kilograms of heroin in Yogyakarta.

She was then given the death penalty despite pleading innocence – saying that she was only a victim of human trafficking.

Initially, she started working as an OFW to give her children a better life. As per her lawyer Agus Salim, she had gone to Dubai to work as a domestic helper, but returned to Manila before the end of her contract because she was allegedly almost raped.

Later on, she was offered another job by her friend, Maria Kristina Sergio, as a domestic helper in Kuala Lumpur, but upon arriving there, she was told that the job was no longer available.

Maria Kristina then gave her an empty suitcase and USD 500; Mary Jane noted that while the suitcase felt heavy, it was empty when given to her.

Upon passing through the airport in Yogyakarta, however, authorities found packs of heroin in the lining of the suitcase.

Sentenced to death

After being arrested, Agus said that Mary Jane was not given a lawyer nor a translator while being interrogated. During her trial, she was assigned a court-provided interpreter, one not licensed by the Association of Indonesian Translators.

Aside from this, the court proceedings were translated to English, not Filipino, which Mary Jane was not fluent in. She was also given a public defender, not a lawyer.

Following her case, Mary Jane was sentenced to undergo the death penalty.

Later on, the Philippine Embassy in Jakarta attempted to file an appeal for Mary Jane; they did so at the Court of Appeals of Yogyakarta, and then later on, her lawyer filed a Memorandum of Appeal at the Supreme Court of Jakarta.

Both would make the decision to uphold her sentence.

In 2011, former President Benigno Aquino III attempted a request for clemency for Mary Jane. This is defined by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) as a process undergone to reduce a defendant’s sentence or to grant a pardon.

This is often done with people on death row as a means of sparing one’s life.

In 2014, the request for clemency on behalf of Mary Jane was denied.

Mary Jane was transferred to the island of Nusa Kumbangan. At the same time, Maria Kristina would turn herself into the police, being charged with illegal recruitment, human trafficking, and fraud. Alongside her was her partner, Julius Lacanilao.

Aquino then made a last minute plea to the Indonesian government to, once again, attempt to save her life.

Following this was the suspension of Mary Jane’s execution, a mere 11 hours before she was to be shot by a firing squad.

Now, after 14 long years, Mary Jane is finally coming home.

Back to the PH

President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has announced that, following over a decade of diplomacy and consultations, Mary Jane will be coming home following an agreement made with Indonesian authorities.

He gave his thanks to Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, as well as the Indonesian government, for their goodwill and partnership with the country to reach justice and compassion.

With regard to Mary Jane’s story, he said: “Mary Jane’s story resonates with many: a mother trapped by the grip of poverty, who made one desperate choice that altered the course of her life. While she was held accountable under Indonesian law, she remains a victim of her circumstances.”

This follows after the decision of Indonesia to consider the option of prisoner transfer for foreign inmates in line with constructive diplomacy.

The Philippine government hopes to get Mary Jane home to the Philippines by Christmas, though this is not yet set in stone.

It can be noted however, as per Department of Justice Assistant Secretary Mico Clavano, that legal custody of Mary Jane will continue to lie with Indonesia even after her transfer. Physical custody of Mary Jane will be in the Philippines.

At present, it is still unsure where she will be placed for detainment following her return.

Source: republicasiamedia.com, Gaby Agbulos, November 20, 2024

_____________________________________________________________________

Twitter/X | Instagram | Telegram | Contact Us

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

Comments

Florida executes Michael Tanzi

Florida on Tuesday executed a death row inmate described by one local detective as a "fledgling serial killer" for the murder of a beloved Miami Herald employee. Florida executed Michael Tanzi on Tuesday, 25 years after the murder of beloved Miami Herald employee Janet Acosta, who was attacked in broad daylight on her lunch break in 2000. Michael Tanzi, 48, was executed by lethal injection at the Florida State Prison in Raiford and pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. ET.

South Carolina | Man who ambushed off-duty cop to face firing squad in second execution of its kind

Mikal Mahdi, 48, who was found guilty of killing an off-duty police officer and a convenience store worker, is the second inmate scheduled to executed by South Carolina's new firing squad A murderer who ambushed and shot an off duty police officer eight times before burning his body in a killing spree is set to become the second person to die by firing squad. South Carolina's highest court has rejected the last major appeal from Mikal Mahdi, 41, who is to be put to death with three bullets to the heart at 6pm on April 11 at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia. Mahdi's lawyers said his original lawyers put on a shallow case trying to spare his life that didn't call on relatives, teachers or people who knew him and ignored the impact of weeks spent in solitary confinement in prison as a teen.

Lethal Injection, Electric Chair, or Firing Squad? An Inhumane Decision for Death Row Prisoners

South Carolina resumed executions with the firing squad killing of Brad Sigmon last month. Mikal Madhi’s execution date is days away. The curtain shrieked as it was yanked open to reveal a 67-year-old man tied to a chair. His arms were pulled uncomfortably behind his back. The red bull’s-eye target on his chest rose and fell as he desperately attempted to still his breathing. The man, Brad Sigmon, smiled at his attorney, Bo King, seated in the front row before guards placed a black bag over his head. King said Sigmon appeared to be trying his best to put on a brave face for those who had come to bear witness.

Afghanistan | Four men publicly executed by Taliban with relatives of victims shooting them 'six or seven times' at sport stadium

Four men have been publicly executed by the Taliban, with relatives of their victims shooting them several times in front of spectators at a sport stadium. Two men were shot around six to seven times by a male relative of the victims in front of spectators in Qala-i-Naw, the centre of Afghanistan's Badghis province, witnesses told an AFP journalist in the city. The men had been 'sentenced to retaliatory punishment' for shooting other men, after their cases were 'examined very precisely and repeatedly', the statement said. 'The families of the victims were offered amnesty and peace but they refused.'

South Carolina executes Mikal Mahdi

Mikal Mahdi, 42, was executed for the 2004 murder of 56-year-old James Myers A man facing the death penalty for committing two murders was executed by firing squad on Friday, the second such execution in the US state of South Carolina this year. Mikal Mahdi, 42, was executed for the 2004 murder of 56-year-old James Myers, an off-duty police officer, and the murder of a convenience store employee three days earlier. According to a statement from the prison, "the execution was performed by a three-person firing squad at 6:01 pm (2201 GMT)," with Mahdi pronounced dead four minutes later.

Louisiana | Lawyers of Jessie Hoffman speak about their final moments before execution

As Louisiana prepared its first execution in 15 years, a team of lawyers from Loyola Law were working to save Jessie Hoffman’s life. “I was a young lawyer three years out of law school, and Jessie was almost finished with his appeals at that time, and my boss told me we needed to file something for Jessie because he’s in danger of being executed,” Kappel said. Kappel and her boss came up with a civil lawsuit to file that said since they wouldn’t give him a protocol for his execution, he was being deprived of due process, and the lawsuit was in the legal process for the next 10 years.

USA | Why the firing squad may be making a comeback

South Carolina plans to execute Mikal Mahdi on Friday for the murder of a police officer, draping a hood over his head and firing three bullets into his heart. The choice to die by firing squad – rather than lethal injection or the electric chair – was Mahdi’s own, his attorney said last month: “Faced with barbaric and inhumane choices, Mikal Mahdi has chosen the lesser of three evils.” If it proceeds, Mahdi’s execution would be the latest in a recent string of events that have put the spotlight on the firing squad as a handful of US death penalty states explore alternatives to lethal injection, by far the nation’s dominant execution method.

I spent 16 years in solitary in South Carolina. This is what it did to me. | Opinion

South Carolinian Randy Poindexter writes about the effects 16 years of solitary confinement had on him ahead of South Carolina’s planned execution of Mikal Mahdi , who spent months in solitary as a young man. For 16 years, I lived in a concrete cell. Twenty-three hours a day, every day, for more than 3,000 days, South Carolina kept me in solitary confinement. I was a young man before I was sent to solitary — angry, untreated and unwell. I made mistakes. But I wasn’t sentenced to madness. That’s what solitary did to me. My mental health worsened with each passing day. At first, paranoia and depression set in. Then, hallucinations and self-mutilation. I talked to people who weren’t there. I cut myself to feel something besides despair. I could do nothing as four of my friends and fellow prisoners took their own lives rather than endure another day of torturous isolation.

Arizona | The cruelty of isolation: There’s nothing ‘humane’ about how we treat the condemned

On March 19, I served as a witness to the execution of a man named Aaron Gunches, Arizona’s first since 2022. During his time on death row, he begged for death and was ultimately granted what is likely more appropriately described as an emotionless state-assisted suicide. This experience has profoundly impacted me, leading to deep reflection on the nature of death, humanity, and the role we play in our final moments. When someone is in the end stages of life, we talk about hospice care, comfort, care, easing suffering and humane death. We strive for a “good death” — a peaceful transition. I’ve seen good ones, and I’ve seen bad, unplanned ones.

Bangladesh | Botswana Woman Executed for Drug Trafficking

Dhaka, Bangladesh – Lesedi Molapisi, a Botswana national convicted of drug trafficking, was executed in Bangladesh on Friday, 21 March 2025. The 31-year-old was hanged at Dhaka Central Jail after exhausting all legal avenues to appeal her death sentence. Molapisi was arrested in January 2023 upon arrival at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, where customs officials discovered 3.1 kilograms of heroin hidden in her luggage. Following a trial under Bangladesh’s Narcotics Control Act, she was sentenced to death in May 2024. Her execution was initially delayed due to political unrest in the country but was carried out last week.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog