The Indonesian government has received an official request for the transfer of Mary Jane Veloso: a Filipino woman who was arrested in Indonesia for drug trafficking in 2010 and then sentenced to death. However, several conditions must be met before her return to the Philippines.
Mary Jane Veloso was arrested in April 2010 after being caught bringing a suitcase containing heroin to Adisucipto International Airport in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Veloso pleaded not guilty, claiming she had been duped by her recruiter into becoming a drug courier without her knowledge. However, an Indonesian court sentenced her to death in October 2010, just six months after her arrest.
In 2015, Veloso’s execution was postponed following an appeal by the former President of the Philippines, Benigno Aquino III, to the then-Indonesian President of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo. Aquino requested that Veloso be made a state witness in a legal case against her recruiter in the Philippines. This delay has allowed Veloso to remain alive to this day.
The potential transfer of Veloso to the Philippines has once again drawn public attention after the current President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., announced that Veloso would be “repatriated” to her home country. However, Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Law, Human Rights, Immigration, and Corrections, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, clarified that Veloso’s status is not yet resolved, and the transfer process remains ongoing.
“There is no word ‘free’ in President Marcos [Jr.]’ statement. ‘Bring her back to the Philippines’ means bringing her back to the Philippines,” Mahendra stated in a written release on Wednesday, the 20th of November.
Mahendra, furthermore, explained that the Indonesian government has received an official request from the government of the Philippines regarding Veloso’s transfer under a “transfer of prisoner” mechanism.
“Once she returns to her country and begins serving her sentence there, the responsibility for her rehabilitation will transfer to her home country’s authorities,” Mahendra continued.
That being said, Mahendra also emphasised the possibility of altering Veloso’s sentence and how this falls entirely under the jurisdiction of the current President of the Philippines.
“In Veloso’s case, President Marcos [Jr.] may grant clemency and commute her sentence to life imprisonment, especially considering that the death penalty has been abolished in the Philippine criminal code,” Mahendra added.
Meanwhile, President Marcos Jr. had earlier shared the news of Veloso’s transfer on his official Instagram page, describing the development as a result of over a decade of diplomacy between the Philippines and Indonesia.
“After more than a decade of diplomacy and consultation with the Indonesian government, we managed to delay her execution long enough to finally bring Mary Jane back to the Philippines,” the President wrote in his Instagram post uploaded on Wednesday. “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.”