Indonesia agrees to repatriate Filipino woman who spent years on death row over drug trafficking

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia and the Philippines signed a deal on Friday to send home a Filipino death-row drug convict who was nearly executed by firing squad in 2015, as the new administration of President Prabowo Subianto seeks to shore up diplomatic ties with neighboring countries.

The agreement, after a decade of negotiations, will allow Mary Jane Veloso to return home by the end of the month, Raul Vasquez, the Undersecretary at the Department of Justice of the Philippines, told a joint news conference with Yusril Ihza Mahendra, Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for Law, Human Rights, Immigration and Correctional.

“It is a fitting gift that affirms the good relationship between the two countries," said Vasquez. “We do understand and we respect the Indonesian court decision with respect to the sentence.. and we will endeavor to let her serve her sentence.”

Although there is no treaty between the countries, Indonesia and the Philippines are both members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the transfer of convicts in the ASEAN region is in accordance with the bloc's Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, Vasquez said,

“Because of the international committee and mutual courtesy that exists between and among member states of the United Nations and fellow countries in the ASEAN, we do have that mutual desire and intention to promote human rights and to protect human rights of all our citizens,” he said after a signing ceremony in the capital, Jakarta.

Mahendra said a joint team from both countries will work closely for Veloso's repatriation.

“We are hopeful that we would be able to do this before Christmas, so that it would be a happier Christmas for everyone," Vasquez said, “Most importantly, to the grieving family of the the relatives, they have long been wanting to see their family back and hold in their arms.”

Veloso was arrested in 2010 after arriving in Yogyakarta's international airport carrying a suitcase lined with 2.6 kilograms (5.7 pounds) of heroin. She was convicted and sentenced to death.

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 other convicts, and Veloso was granted a stay of execution while the Philippines investigated her case.

Once repatriated, “the authority to treat the convict is entirely under the Philippine government,” Mahendra said. If the Philippines want to pardon Veloso or grant clemency, “that is entirely their authority and which we must also respect,” the minister added. The Philippines, Asia’s largest Roman Catholic nation, has abolished the death penalty.

Mahendra said the transfer agreement was a “historic milestone” between Indonesia and the Philippines, and part of Subianto’s “good neighbor” policy.

Mahendra also said that Indonesia had agreed in principal to return five Australian nationals and a French national to their home countries.

The five Australians were convicted of drug trafficking and have served nearly two decades of their life sentences in Indonesia after being arrested in 2005 for attempting to smuggle just over 8 kilograms (17.6 pounds) of heroin out of Bali. Two others were executed in 2015, another walked free in 2018 and the fourth died of cancer.