YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A Filipina who was on death row in Indonesia and was nearly executed by firing squad in 2015 will return home this week under an arrangement between the countries, officials said Monday.
Mary Jane Veloso, who spent almost 15 years in an Indonesian prison for drug trafficking, won a last-minute reprieve that led to her testimony exposing how a criminal syndicate duped her into being an unwitting accomplice and drug courier.
Veloso was moved late Sunday to a a female prison in Indonesia’s capital, from where she will be flown back to the Philippines early Wednesday, I Nyoman Gede Surya Mataram, an official at the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections, told a news conference.
Her repatriation was made possible by a “practical arrangement” signed between the two countries on Dec. 6, after a decade of pleading from Manila.
In a tearful interview with The Associated Press last week, Veloso described her return home as being “like a miracle when I have lost all hope.”
“For almost 15 years I was separated from my children and parents, and I could not see my children grow up,” she said. “I wish to be given an opportunity to take care of my children and to be close to my parents.”
Veloso, who will turn 40 next month, was arrested in 2010 at an airport in the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta, where officials discovered about 2.6 kilograms (5.7 pounds) of heroin hidden in her luggage. The single mother of two sons was convicted and sentenced to death.
Her case caused a public outcry in the Philippines. She traveled to Indonesia in 2010, where her recruiter, Maria Kristina Sergio, reportedly told her a job as a domestic worker awaited her. Sergio also allegedly provided the suitcase where the drugs were found.
In 2015, Indonesia moved Veloso to an island prison where she and eight other drug convicts were scheduled to be executed by firing squad despite objections from their home countries Australia, Brazil, France, Ghana and Nigeria.
Indonesia executed the eight but Veloso was granted a stay of execution because Sergio was arrested in the Philippines just two days before.
In the Philippines, Veloso’s two sons told GMA News network they’re are excited to be reunited with their mother after the long wait. They were 1 and 6 years old when she was arrested in 2010.
“I will hug her tight. I really missed my Mama,” said Mark Darren Candelaria, Veloso’s youngest son, told GMA News network. “Hopefully before Christmas my Mama can be freed and she can go home so our Christmas and New Year will be happy.”
The family is appealing to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to grant Veloso executive clemency.
Indonesia’s last executions of an Indonesia and three foreigners were carried out in July 2016.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says Indonesia is a major drug smuggling hub despite having some of the strictest drug laws in the world, in part because international drug syndicates target its young population.
About 530 people are on death row in Indonesia, mostly for drug-related crimes, including 96 foreigners, the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections’ data showed last month.
Five Australians who spent almost 20 years in Indonesian prisons for heroin trafficking returned to Australia on Sunday under a deal struck between the Indonesian and Australian governments.
Indonesia recently agreed in principle to return a French man and a British woman, both on death row, to their home countries.
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Karmini reported from Jakarta, Indonesia. Associated Press journalist Dita Alangkara contributed to this report.
