Indonesia: “Miracle” of Christmas for a death row prisoner

PublishedDecember 17, 2024, 6:04 p.m.

The fate of the 39-year-old Filipina, mother of two children, greatly moved her compatriots and the authorities in Manila, who managed to save her and repatriate her.

A Filipina sentenced to death in Indonesia for drug trafficking, a case with twists and turns that had shocked her compatriots, was handed over to the authorities of her country on Tuesday in Jakarta from where a plane was to repatriate her in the evening, in time for Christmas, observed a journalist. Mary Jane Veloso, 39, mother of two, was arrested in 2010 in Indonesia while carrying 2.6 kilos of heroin in her suitcase.

Two days after the repatriation of five Australians, who were serving long sentences for drug trafficking and imprisoned for 19 years in Indonesia, she benefited from an agreement concluded between her country and the Indonesia of new President Prabowo Subianto.

The country has at least 530 convicts on death row, according to the rights association Kontras, citing official data, including 96 foreigners, including Frenchman Serge Atlaoui, 60, imprisoned since 2005 and for whom the France is in talks. “I am very happy today but to be honest, also a little sad, because Indonesia is my second family,” she said during a press briefing at Jakarta International Airport, before to be handed over to the Philippine authorities. She then sang the Indonesian anthem.

“I hope you all pray for me, I have to be strong,” she added. Before speaking to the media, she had a video call with her children and parents, and burst into tears. “I have to go home, because I have my family there, my children waiting for me,” she added, saying she hoped to celebrate Christmas with them. “It’s a new life beginning for me, a new beginning in the Philippines,” she said.

Her conviction sparked an outcry in the Philippines, with her family and supporters saying she was innocent and the victim of an international drug trafficking ring. At the end of November, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced that his Indonesian counterpart Prabowo Subianto had given his agreement in principle to the repatriation of Ms. Veloso.

“It’s a miracle because, honestly, even now, it still feels like a dream,” Mary Jane Veloso said last Friday from her women’s prison in Yogyakarta, on the island of Java.

In 2015, his government obtained a last-minute reprieve to avoid his execution, after the arrest of a woman suspected of having recruited him and who was tried for human trafficking. A predominantly Muslim country, Indonesia is one of the countries with one of the strictest anti-drug laws in the world.

Last week, Australia secured the repatriation of five nationals imprisoned for 19 years for drug trafficking in Indonesia, in the so-called “Bali Nine” affair. Two of them, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, considered the leaders of the gang, were executed in 2015 despite requests from Australia.