Filipina spared from execution in Indonesia returns home after 14 years on death row

A Filipina woman who had been on death row in Indonesia, and who was nearly executed by firing squad in 2015, arrived home early Wednesday after longstanding requests from her home country.

Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso had spent almost 15 years in prison for drug trafficking but won a last-minute reprieve that will lead to her testimony exposing how a criminal syndicate duped her into being an unwitting accomplice and drug courier.

Relatives and a small group of supporters, including Veloso’s two sons who were 1- and 6-year old when she was arrested in 2010, welcome her with cheers and tears when she arriving at Manila’s airport.

“Welcome home Mary Jane,” read a huge banner carried by relatives and supporters who were clasping flowers.

Veloso was moved late Sunday from a female prison in Yogyakarta to Indonesia’s capital Jakarta, then escorted Tuesday night for a flight to Manila. Her repatriation was made possible by a “practical arrangement” for the transfer of prisoners signed between the two countries on December 6.

Her transfer removes the possibility of execution. The Philippines, Asia’s largest Roman Catholic nation, has long abolished the death penalty.

Cries rang out and the crowd waved as Veloso was escorted by a security cordon to a waiting van. Her parents wiped away tears, with her mother Celia expressing frustration that they were unable to go near or hug her.

Officials said that relatives and lawyers will instead spend an hour with Veloso at the Correctional Institution for Women in Metro Manila, where she was moved for security reasons.

“Hopefully the president can grant clemency to Mary Jane,” Veloso’s mother told reporters. Her family has been seeking presidential clemency but the presidential palace said there has been no decision.

A crowd of about 100 supporters chanted “Clemency for Mary Jane” and “Free, free Mary Jane” as the van carrying Veloso arrived at the penal facility.

Veloso earlier told reporters outside Pondok Bambu prison in Jakarta that she was overwhelmed by emotions. She said she was treated well by fellow inmates and prison officials during her 14 years of incarceration and had many souvenirs including a guitar, books, knitting and rosaries.

“Thank you, Indonesia, I love Indonesia,” Veloso said, forming a heart with her fingers.

In a news conference at the airport, she thanked Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto and his government, as well as Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., for their efforts to send her home to serve the rest of her sentence in her country.

“I am grateful to God who has answered my prayers,” Veloso said while trying to hold in sobs. “I will return to my country, and I am sure and believe that God has a beautiful plan for my life.”

Eduardo Jose De Vega, the undersecretary for migration affairs at the Philippines Foreign Affairs Department, said her transfer was evidence of the success of diplomacy between the countries in upholding the principles of the supremacy of law and respect for human rights.

Indonesia’s senior minister of law, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, has said that “if the Philippines want to pardon Veloso or grant clemency, that is entirely their authority and we must also respect.”

Under the agreement, Veloso is banned from entering Indonesian territory for life.

“Allow me to thank the government of Indonesia for its sincere and decisive action which allowed Mary Jane Veloso to be home before Christmas,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo said in a statement Wednesday.

“This is a significant achievement for the bilateral relations between the Philippines and Indonesia, a mark of the trust and friendship between our two nations,” Manalo said.

Marcos told reporters on Tuesday that “we’re celebrating already.”

Prison officials said Veloso will undergo five days of quarantine at the penal facility for women in Manila, where her family will spend Christmas Eve with her.

Veloso, who will turn 40 next month, was arrested in 2010 at an airport in Yogyakarta, where officials discovered about 2.6 kilograms (5.7 pounds) of heroin hidden in her luggage.

The conviction and death sentence for the single mother of two sons caused an outcry in the Philippines.

She had traveled to Indonesia where a 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 despite objections from their home countries Australia, Brazil, France, Ghana and Nigeria.

Indonesia executed the others but Veloso was granted a stay of execution because Sergio had been arrested in the Philippines two days earlier.

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. Indonesia’s last executions, of a citizen and three foreigners, were carried out in July 2016.

Five Australians who spent almost 20 years in Indonesian prisons for heroin trafficking returned to Australia on Sunday under a deal struck between the governments.