(16 Dec 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wonosari, Indonesia – 15 December 2024
1. Official opens the car door where prisoner Mary Jane is inside
2. Mary Jane waving to journalists UPSOUND (Indonesian): "Thank you very much, please pray. God bless you all.
(Reporter asks off camera: Mary Jane, is there a message for Romo Kisar (the priest who always accompanies you?)
"Romo Kisar told me to keep healthy. Merry Christmas, I am very happy. Thank you all very much."
3. Prison gates are closed
STORYLINE:
A Filipino woman who was on death row in Indonesia — and was nearly executed by firing squad in 2015 — was moved late Sunday to a women’s prison in Jakarta.
From there, Mary Jane Veloso will be flown back to her home country.
Veloso spent almost 15 years in an Indonesian prison for drug trafficking. She was allowed to return home after Indonesia and the Philippines signed a “practical arrangement” deal on December 6, after a decade of pleading from Manila.
Veloso, who will turn 40 next month, was arrested in 2010 at an airport in the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta, where officials discovered about 2.6 kilograms (5.7 pounds) of heroin hidden in her luggage. The single mother of two sons was convicted and sentenced to death.
Veloso has maintained her innocence throughout her 14 years of incarceration. She has spent her time in prison designing Indonesian batik clothing, painting, tailoring and learning other skills.
Just before midnight on Sunday, she was escorted through a crush of reporters outside a female prison in Yogyakarta into a waiting van that took her to Jakarta, about 460 kilometers (285 miles) away.
Wearing a black T-shirt and dark pants, she made only a brief comment to reporters, saying, “I’m so happy… Thank you so much and Merry Christmas!” from behind the vehicle’s window.
Veloso’s case caused a public outcry in the Philippines.
She traveled to Indonesia in 2010 where her recruiter, Maria Kristina Sergio, reportedly told her a job as a domestic worker awaited her. Sergio also allegedly provided the suitcase where the drugs were found.
In 2015, Indonesia moved Veloso to an island prison where she and eight other drug convicts were scheduled to be executed by firing squad despite objections from Australia, Brazil, France, Ghana and Nigeria.
Indonesia executed the eight others, and Veloso was granted a stay of execution because Sergio was arrested in the Philippines just two days before her scheduled execution.
The reprieve provided an opportunity for Veloso’s testimony to expose how a criminal syndicate duped her into being an unwitting accomplice and courier in drug trafficking.
Veloso will need to stay for a few days at the Pondok Bambu female prison in Jakarta while waiting for her flight tickets and travel documents, said Sohibur Rachman, an official at the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections.
Rachman said his ministry was coordinating with the Philippine Embassy in Jakarta on repatriating Veloso. He has not said when her return will take place but unconfirmed reports said her flight to Manila is scheduled for early Wednesday.
AP video shot by Kasan Kurdi
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