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JAKARTA: Manila and Jakarta signed an agreement Friday to repatriate Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipino on death row for drug charges in Indonesia since 2015, with officials saying she could return to the Philippines before Christmas.
The announcement came following the Philippines’ Department of Justice undersecretary Raul Vasquez meeting with Indonesia’s senior law and human rights minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra in Jakarta Friday, where both ministers signed the agreement.
Following the signing, Indonesian authorities will discuss further details with the Philippines’ embassy in Jakarta on Veloso’s transfer, Yusril said.
“We agree to return the person concerned to the Philippines and furthermore the obligation to provide guidance to prisoner Mary Jane Veloso becomes the responsibility of the Philippine government,” Yusril Ihza Mahendra said Friday.
He added that they are hoping the transfer “will be carried out before Christmas, 25 December.”
Yusril also said Indonesia will respect the Philippines’ government decision if Manila decide to grant clemency to Veloso.
Veloso was arrested in Indonesia in 2010 carrying a suitcase lined with 2.6 kilograms (5.7 pounds) of heroin and later sentenced to death.
She was due to face the firing squad in 2015 but the Philippine government won a last-minute reprieve for her after a woman suspected of recruiting her was arrested and put on trial for human trafficking in which Veloso was named as a prosecution witness.
The mother-of-two’s case sparked an uproar in the Philippines, with her family and supporters saying she was innocent and had been set up by an international drug syndicate.
Vasquez on Friday expressed the Philippine government’s “heartfelt gratitude” for Jakarta over Veloso’s transfer, adding that Manila respected the Indonesian court’s decision on her case.
“We do understand and we respect the decision of the Indonesian courts with respect to the sentence that was meted on our citizen Mary Jane Veloso,” he said.
“Once transferred to the country, she will serve her sentence in accordance, as agreed upon, in accordance with Philippine laws and regulations with respect to the Penal Code.”
Indonesia has some of the world’s toughest drug laws including the death penalty for traffickers.
At least 530 people were on death row in the Southeast Asian nation, mostly for drug-related crimes, according to data from rights group KontraS, citing official figures.
As of early November, 96 foreigners were on death row in Indonesia, all on drugs charges, according to data from the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections.
Indonesia is also in talks with Australia and France after President Prabowo Subianto had agreed to fulfil their requests to hand back some prisoners who were sentenced on drug charges.
The prisoners include the five remaining members of Australia’s “Bali Nine” — namely Matthew Norman, Si Yi Chen, Michael Czugaj, Scott Rush and Martin Stephens — who are in jail on life sentences.
The Indonesian government also received a letter from the French government requesting the transfer of Serge Atlaoui, who has been jailed in the Southeast Asian archipelago since his 2005 arrest.
Despite the ongoing negotiation for prisoner transfers, the Indonesian government gave the signal Thursday that it will resume execution — on hiatus since 2016 — of drug convicts who are on death row.
“The government will... study the acceleration of the execution of the death penalty for drug convicts that are legally binding and have no more legal remedies,” Coordinating Political and Security Minister Budi Gunawan said Thursday.