Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina who was nearly executed in Indonesia, arrives home | Human trafficking news

A Filipina who spent nearly 15 years on death row in Indonesia and was nearly executed by firing squad has returned to her homeland, where she now awaits a possible pardon in a women’s prison.

Mary Jane VelosoThe 39-year-old landed at the Manila airport early Wednesday after being involved in an accident Homecoming deal Between the two countries, which eliminated the threat of her execution, as the Philippines had long ago abolished the death penalty.

The mother of two was arrested and sentenced to death in 2010 after a bag she was carrying was found filled with 2.6 kilograms (5.7 pounds) of heroin.

She returned home without handcuffs with Filipino corrections officials on an overnight commercial flight after a party in Jakarta marking “the end of a horrific chapter in Veloso’s life,” the Bureau of Corrections said in a statement.

Veloso was surrounded by tight security upon her arrival at the airport and was transferred directly to a women’s prison. Her family and dozens of supporters, chanting slogans such as “Clemency for Mary Jane” and “Free, Free Mary Jane” and waiting outside the hall, failed to greet Veloso upon her arrival.

Later, prison guards allowed Veloso’s family to spend time with her. Veloso’s two sons ran to her and hugged her tightly when they met inside the prison complex.

He added: “I hope that our president (Ferdinand Marcos) will grant me clemency so that I can return to my family.” “I’ve been in prison in Indonesia for 15 years for something I didn’t do,” Veloso, who is still theoretically serving a life sentence, told reporters after undergoing a medical examination in a Manila prison.

Victim of trafficking

The conviction and death sentence of a single mother of two has caused a stir in the Philippines.

She had traveled to Indonesia, where Maria Cristina Sergio, one of the recruitment officials, informed her of a job waiting for her as a domestic maid. Sergio is also alleged to have provided the bag in which the drugs were found.

In 2015, Indonesia transferred Veloso to an island prison where she and eight other drug convicts were scheduled to be executed despite objections from their home countries of 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. She faces charges of human trafficking, and Veloso has been named as a prosecution witness in the case.

Veloso has become a role model for her country’s 10 million economic expatriates, many of whom work as domestic workers abroad to escape poverty at home.

Marcos said last month that Veloso’s story resonated in the Philippines as “a mother in the grip of poverty who made a desperate choice that changed the course of her life.”

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Marcos thanked Indonesia for handing over Veloso’s detention, but did not mention pardon or clemency.

Under the agreement, the life sentence imposed on Veloso now falls within the jurisdiction of the Philippines, “including the power to grant clemency, pardon, and similar measures.”

“This is definitely on the table,” Justice Undersecretary Raul Vazquez told reporters on Wednesday, adding that Veloso’s clemency request “will be seriously considered.”

Vasquez added that she will serve a life sentence if she is not pardoned.

The Indonesian government said it would respect any decision taken by Manila.

The Veloso deal includes a “reciprocity” clause. “If Indonesia requests similar assistance in the future, the Philippines must fulfill this request,” the agreement states.

There has been intense press speculation that Indonesia will seek the detention of Gregor Johan Haas, an Australian arrested on drug charges in the Philippines earlier this year.

Jakarta is also searching for him on drug smuggling charges, which could lead to the death penalty.

Data from the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections last month showed that about 530 people are on death row in Indonesia, most of them for drug-related crimes, including 96 foreigners. The last executions in Indonesia, of a citizen and three foreigners, were carried out in July 2016.

Five Australians A man who spent nearly 20 years in Indonesian prisons for heroin smuggling returned to Australia on Sunday under an agreement reached between the two governments.