JAKARTA, Dec 16 — A Filipina inmate sentenced to death in Indonesia was moved to capital Jakarta before she is expected to fly home on Wednesday, after the government signed an agreement to repatriate her.
Mother of two Mary Jane Veloso, 39, was arrested and convicted in 2010 after the suitcase she was carrying was found to be lined with 2.6 kilograms of heroin.
On Sunday, officers picked her up from a women’s prison in Yogyakarta province, an AFP journalist present said, before transporting her to another prison in Jakarta more than 418 kilometres away.
From there she will be flown back to the Philippines early Wednesday morning, I Nyoman Gede Surya Mataram, acting deputy for immigration and corrections coordination, told a press conference.
She will travel home on a Cebu Airlines flight shortly after midnight on December 18, he confirmed to reporters.
Foreign affairs ministry spokesman Roy Soemirat said they did not yet “have any formal information from our law enforcement agency on the details” of her transfer.
The Philippine embassy in Jakarta did not respond to a request for comment.
Both Veloso and her supporters said she was duped by an international drug syndicate, and in 2015, she narrowly escaped execution after her suspected recruiter was arrested.
She told AFP on Friday in her first interview since the repatriation agreement that her release was a “miracle”.
Muslim-majority Indonesia has some of the world’s toughest drug laws and has executed foreigners in the past.
At least 530 people were on death row in the Southeast Asian nation, mostly for drug-related crimes, according to data from rights group KontraS, citing official figures.
According to Indonesia’s Ministry of Immigration and Corrections, 96 foreigners were on death row, all on drug charges, as of early November. — AFP
