Away too long: Veloso (in purple jacket) meeting relatives while flanked by her two sons after arriving at the Correctional Institution for Women in Manila. — AFP
A WOMAN who spent nearly 15 years on Indonesia’s death row tearfully reunited with family members after arriving in Manila, where she now awaits a hoped-for pardon in a women’s prison.
Mother of two Mary Jane Veloso landed at daybreak, then was immediately transferred to prison following a repatriation deal between the two countries over a decade in the making.
Technically still serving a life sentence, how long she remains behind bars is now in the hands of President Ferdinand Marcos.
The 39-year-old was arrested and sentenced to death in 2010 after the suitcase she was carrying was found to be lined with 2.6kg of heroin, in a case that sparked uproar in the Philippines.
Veloso wept yesterday as she hugged one of her sons and her parents inside the Correctional Institution for Women in Manila, where she is being detained under the terms of a transfer agreement with Indonesia that removed the possibility of execution.
She flew home without handcuffs alongside Filipino correctional officials on an overnight commercial flight after a Jakarta ceremony marking “the end of a harrowing chapter in Veloso’s life”, the corrections bureau said in a statement.
“I hope our president will give me clemency so I can go back to my family.
“I had been in jail in Indonesia for 15 years over something I did not commit,” Veloso, her voice breaking, told reporters after undergoing a medical examination at the Manila prison.
In a statement yesterday, Marcos thanked Indonesia for turning over custody, but made no mention of a pardon or clemency.
Under the agreement, Veloso’s life sentence now falls under the Philippines’ purview, “including the authority to grant clemency, remission, amnesty and similar measures”.
“Definitely, that’s on the table,” Justice Undersecretary Raul Vasquez told reporters yesterday, adding Veloso’s clemency bid would be “seriously studied”.
She will serve out her life sentence if not pardoned, Vasquez added. — AFP
