JAKARTA (Updated: 3:21 p.m.) — Indonesia will transfer Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipino woman who was sentenced to death for drug trafficking, to her home country in the early hours of Wednesday morning, a senior Indonesian official said.
Indonesia last month agreed to repatriate Veloso, a former domestic helper and mother of two, who was arrested in Yogyakarta in 2010 after being found with 2.6 kg (5.73 lb) of heroin concealed in a suitcase.
Veloso’s case caused a domestic outcry in the Philippines and she received a last-minute reprieve from execution in 2015 after late former President Benigno Aquino appealed to the Indonesian government, arguing she could be a vital witness in prosecuting drug syndicates.
World boxing icon Manny Pacquiao had also campaigned for her to be spared execution.
Veloso had been moved from a prison in Yogyakarta city to a female jail in the capital of Jakarta, from where she will be flown to the Philippines, I Nyoman Gde Surya Mataram, a deputy of Indonesia’s senior minister for law and human rights affairs told a press conference on Monday.
Veloso will serve the remainder of her sentence in the Philippines.
The Philippine foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the repatriation.
Indonesia at the weekend also allowed five remaining members of the “Bali Nine” Australian drug ring to be repatriated to serve their sentence in their home country, at the request of Canberra.
—Reporting by Ananda Teresia; Editing by Gayatri Suroyo, Martin Petty
