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Mary Jane Veloso's family, a Filipino woman whose name was on death row since 2010 in Indonesia after she was convicted of drug trafficking was begging for mercy with Indonesian President Joko Widodo when he visited the country on Wednesday.
The convicted Veloso has been listed on death row after trafficked 2.6kg of heroin in her bag at the Adisutjipto International Airport in Yogyakarta province in 2010.
In 2015, Widodo granted Veloso a reprieve just hours before her scheduled execution, the report said.
In June last year, Mary Jane Veloso’s parents and two sons travelled to Yogyakarta, Indonesia to visit Mary Jane in her place of detention in Wonosari on her 39 year birthday, an almost two-hour drive from the city centre. After five years without seeing her family. They were able to reunite and spend a significant time with Mary Jane for two days.
In preparation for the Indonesian president's visit to the Philippines, Foreign Minister Eduardo Manalo met his counterpart Retno Marsudi. Manalo, who had sought clemency for Veloso in September 2022, told reporters on Tuesday that he and Marsudi were still “working” on her case. “Now, it’s up to their government to decide,” Manalo added.
Migrante International, an active defender of the rights and welfare of OFWs had said granting clemency to Veloso would affirm a historical kinship between the Philippines and Indonesia.
The group's chairperson said, “Mary Jane is a victim of joblessness in the Philippines and of unscrupulous individuals who take advantage of poor Filipinos who are desperate to find employment".
However, Migrante said the onus of pushing for Veloso’s freedom had always been on the Philippine government, and unnecessary delays had cost her years spent in “unjust incarceration”.
“From the very start, Mary Jane’s fate has been in the hands of our government. We all know she is innocent. But it’s been over a decade, and we still do not have her legal deposition. We haven’t heard her speak yet,” the group's chairperson said.
The Filipino nationals Maria Cristina Sergio and Julius Lacanilao, who allegedly recruited Veloso on a false premise, were charged with illegal recruitment, fraud, and human trafficking in 2015 but their cases are yet to conclude
Veloso has long maintained that she was unaware of the narcotics in her luggage, which she said were placed in there by Sergio and Lacanilao.
In June, the Philippine government submitted a request to Indonesia requesting Veloso’s deposition in court. Veloso’s lawyer, Josa Deinla, told This Week In Asia that her legal team will continue to press both governments to finally allow Veloso’s deposition to be heard.
Since October 2019, the Philippine Supreme Court has agreed for her testimony to be delivered in Indonesia.
However, the two countries have yet to follow up on the matter or agree on a venue for jurisdiction.
Deinla urged Marcos Jnr to press Widodo to free Veloso. “She has long been suffering in jail for a crime she didn’t commit,” Deinla said.
Last May, Marcos Jnr said he wanted to bring Veloso home so that “we will be the ones to punish her”. But Deinla argued that the Philippine government had no basis to punish Veloso. “She is a victim [of human trafficking], not a criminal,” Deinla said.
Capital punishment is a form of legal penalty in Indonesia. Although the death penalty is normally enforced only in grave cases of premeditated murder, corruption in extreme cases can lead to the death penalty and the death penalty is also regularly applied to certain drug traffickers.
菲律賓毒犯瑪麗·簡·維羅索的家人懇求印尼總統在訪問期間對她的死刑予以寬恕
菲律賓婦女瑪麗·簡·維羅索(Mary Jane Veloso) 因販毒被定罪，自2010 年起就被關在印度尼西亞的死囚牢房，週三印度尼西亞總統佐科·維多多(Joko Widodo) 訪問印度尼西亞時，她的家人正在向他求饒。
2010 年，被定罪的維羅索在日惹省阿迪蘇吉普托國際機場販運了 2.6 公斤海洛因，後來被列入死囚牢房。
報導稱，2015 年，維多多在維羅索預定處決前幾個小時給予了她緩刑。
去年6 月，瑪麗·簡·維羅索(Mary Jane Veloso) 的父母和兩個兒子前往印度尼西亞日惹，在瑪麗·簡(Wonosari) 的拘留所探望她的39 歲生日，該拘留所距離市中心近兩個小時車程。 五年沒有見到家人了。 他們得以團聚，並與瑪麗·簡度過了重要的兩天時光。
為了準備印尼總統訪問菲律賓，外交部長愛德華多·馬納洛會見了外交部長蕾特諾·馬爾蘇迪。 Manalo 於 2022 年 9 月為 Veloso 尋求寬大處理，他週二告訴記者，他和 Marsudi 仍在「處理」她的案件。
「現在，由他們的政府來決定，」馬納洛補充道。
國際移民組織 (Migrante International) 是海外菲勞 (OFW) 權利和福利的積極捍衛者，他表示，對維羅索給予寬大處理將確認菲律賓和印尼之間的歷史血緣關係。
該組織主席表示，「瑪麗·簡是菲律賓失業問題的受害者，也是不擇手段的人的受害者，他們利用了迫切尋找工作的貧窮菲律賓人」。
但米格蘭特表示，爭取維羅索自由的責任始終落在菲律賓政府身上，不必要的拖延讓她在「不公正的監禁」中度過了多年。
「從一開始，瑪麗·簡的命運就掌握在我們政府的手中。 我們都知道她是無辜的。 但十多年過去了，我們仍然沒有她的合法證詞。 我們還沒有聽到她說話，」該組織的主席說。
菲律賓國民瑪麗亞·克里斯蒂娜·塞爾吉奧(Maria Cristina Sergio) 和朱利葉斯·拉卡尼勞(Julius Lacanilao) 涉嫌在虛假前提下招募維羅索，於2015 年被指控非法招募、欺詐和人口販運，但他們的案件尚未結案
維羅索長期以來一直堅稱，她不知道行李中藏有毒品，她說這些毒品是塞爾吉奧和拉卡尼勞放在裡面的。
6月，菲律賓政府向印尼提交請求，要求維羅索出庭作證。 維羅索的律師喬薩·德因拉 (Josa Deinla) 告訴《亞洲週刊》，她的法律團隊將繼續向兩國政府施壓，最終允許聽取維羅索的證詞。
自2019年10月起，菲律賓最高法院同意她在印尼出庭作證。
然而，兩國尚未就此事採取後續行動或就管轄地點達成協議。
德因拉敦促小馬科斯向維多多施壓，釋放維羅索。 「她長期以來一直因為自己沒有犯下的罪行而在監獄裡受苦，」德因拉說。
去年五月，小馬科斯表示，他想把維羅索帶回家，這樣「我們將成為懲罰她的人」。 但德因拉辯稱，菲律賓政府沒有依據懲罰維羅索。 「她是[人口販運]的受害者，而不是罪犯，」德因拉說。
死刑是印尼法定刑罰的一種形式。 雖然死刑通常只在嚴重的預謀殺人案件中執行，但極端情況下的腐敗可以導致死刑，而死刑也經常適用於某些毒販。
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