Filipina drugs convict nearly executed in Indonesia to return home Dec. 18

Five Australian drug convicts were repatriated Sunday, but reciprocity will apply in future transfers of foreign prisoners, Indonesian official says.
Tria Dianti
2024.12.16
Jakarta
Filipina drugs convict nearly executed in Indonesia to return home Dec. 18 Filipina Mary Jane Veloso, a death row drugs convict, waves to journalists at the Yogyakarta Class IIB Women’s Correctional Institution in Indonesia’s Wonosari, before her transfer to a Jakarta prison in preparation for her repatriation, Dec. 15, 2024.
Devi Rahman/AFP

Indonesia said it would send home on Wednesday a Filipina death-row inmate who came close to being executed nine years ago over a drug conviction before her punishment was postponed.

The expected return to the Philippines of Mary Jane Veloso will take place days after the last five Australian prisoners from the infamous “Bali Nine” drug trafficking case were repatriated over the weekend.

The returns don’t involve prisoner exchanges, but Ahmad Usmarwi Kaffah, a special staff member in Indonesia’s Ministry of Law and Human Rights, said that reciprocity would apply in future transfers of foreign prisoners.

Indonesia and the Philippines had agreed last month that Veloso, who has been on death row for the past 14 years, would be repatriated and transferred to the custody of Filipino officials, but no date was set then for her return.

Late Sunday, the 39-year-old mother of two was transferred from a women’s prison in Yogyakarta to a Jakarta prison in preparation for her return to the Philippines, an Indonesian official said.

“At around 1 a.m. early on Wednesday, we will repatriate Mary Jane,” I Nyoman Gede Surya Mataram, an official at the Ministry of Law, Human Rights, Immigrations and Corrections, told reporters.

Veloso was arrested in 2010 at Yogyakarta’s Adisutjipto Airport after 2.5 kilograms (5.51 pounds) of heroin was found concealed in her luggage. She was sentenced to death later that year. 

The Filipina was scheduled to be executed along with several other convicts on death row in 2015, but her execution was postponed at the last minute after Manila requested that her case be reviewed. 

Veloso has consistently maintained she was a victim of human trafficking, duped into carrying the drugs by a syndicate that exploited her desperation as a migrant worker.

The Philippines, a country heavily reliant on remittances from its overseas workers, had campaigned for years to secure Veloso’s release.

Velosa-Two.jpg
I Nyoman Gede Surya Mataram (center), a senior official at the Coordinating Ministry for Law and Human Rights, speaks to reporters about the repatriation of Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina death row drugs convict, in Jakarta, Dec. 16, 2024. [Juni Kriswanto/AFP]

Indonesia has some of the world’s harshest drug laws. 

In 2023, the United Nations said that the manufacture of amphetamine type stimulants had risen sharply over the last five years and the drug was being trafficked internationally at a rate that the Southeast Asian country may “soon rival Europe as a provider for the world’s” crystal meth and ecstasy.

Meanwhile, five of the remaining so-called Bali Nine heroin traffickers who were serving life sentences in Indonesian prisons were sent back to Australia on Sunday morning, the law ministry confirmed.

Scott Anthony Rush, Mathew James Norman, Si Yi Chen, Michael William Czugaj and Martin Eric Stephens were flown from Bali’s Ngurah Rai Airport to Darwin, the ministry said. 

Veloso-THREE.jpg
Five of the Australian “Bali Nine” drug convicts (standing) who were serving a life sentence in Indonesian prisons look on as Erwedi Supriyatno (seated, right), director of prisoner development of Indonesia’s Directorate General of Corrections, and Lauren Richardson, Australian representative and minister-counselor home affairs, sign a prisoner transfer agreement at the I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali, Dec. 15, 2024. [Indonesia’s Coordinating Ministry for Law, Human Rights, Immigration and Corrections via AFP]

The Bali Nine case has long been a contentious point in bilateral relations. 

Of the nine Australians arrested in 2005 for attempting to smuggle heroin from Indonesia to Australia, two were executed by firing squad in 2015. One died of cancer in June 2018, while another had her sentence commuted in November of that year.

The arrangement for the return of the remaining five stipulates that Australia must respect Indonesia’s judicial sovereignty and decisions, including the prisoners’ original sentences, said Yusril Ihza Mahendra, Indonesia’s coordinating minister for law, human rights and corrections. 

The agreement also requires Australia to provide Indonesia with regular updates on the convicts’ status and treatment, he told reporters on Monday.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement Sunday that the five “will have the opportunity to continue their personal rehabilitation and reintegration” in their country.

“These Australians served more than 19 years in prison in Indonesia. It was time for them to come home,” said Albanese in the statement.

However, the five are now free men, the Associated Press news agency said in a report on Sunday.

There had been no immediate comments from Indonesia on this or other media reports that said the five were free.


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The transfer of the Veloso and the Australians falls under the framework of bilateral agreements between Indonesia and the respective countries, said Ahmad Usmarwi, the special staff member in Indonesia’s law ministry.

“They are done out of goodwill, and in accordance with the rule of law, with both countries honoring each other’s judicial decisions,” he told reporters on Monday.

He also indicated that reciprocity could be a key consideration in future transfers of foreign inmates.

“First, please remember that the principle of reciprocity applies,” he said. 

“So, with the transfer of prisoners, eventually, the same treatment will be applied by the other countries.”

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