March 30
INDONESIA:
How a 30-year-old Filipina ended up on death row in Indonesia
Mary Jane Veloso, 30, was caught trafficking drugs when her flight from
Malaysia landed in Jogjakarta in April 2010. She had on her 2.6 kilograms of
heroin with a street value of US$500,000.
She was sentenced to death in October 2010 and the Philippine government has
vowed to exhaust all means to save her. Her initial appeal for judicial review
- she says she did not have a capable interpreter during her trial - was
rejected last week and on Friday we reported that Indonesia is preparing to
move her for execution. A 2nd petition will be filed by the Philippine
government.
Veloso's plight comes on the heels of another high-profile drug-trafficking
case in Indonesia involving Bali 9, a group called as such because its
conspirators are 4 Indonesians and 6 foreigners. The alleged masterminds,
Australian citizens Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, are set to be executed
soon by gunfire despite top-level intercessions from the Australian government
and human rights advocates.
These are what you need to know to better understand the case of Mary Jane
Veloso, a Filipina on death row:
1. Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso is from the village of Caudillo near Cabanatuan
City, where she grew up impoverished, with her parents and siblings. She is a
single mother of 2.
2. Among the siblings, it was only Mary Jane who was able to go to high school
- but she only attended 1st year.
3. Instead, she seeked employment abroad as a domestic helper, lasting only 10
months in the United Arab Emirates because she fled when her employer tried to
rape her.
4. At 25, she was going to try her luck again, this time as a domestic helper,
a job she heard about from her kinakapatid Cristina. When she landed in Kuala
Lumpur, however, Cristina told her the job was already filled but there was
another vacancy in Jogjakarta in the island of Java if she was still
interested?
5. Before the flight to Jogjakarta, Cristina took Veloso on a shopping spree
where she bought her new clothes and luggage. They took the same flight but
Cristina disappeared when Veloso's suitcase set off the security alarm while
she was clearing customs.
6. Hidden inside Veloso's luggage was 2.6 grams of heroin wrapped in aluminum
foil, with an estimated street value of US$500,000. She had been set up as a
drug mule and was arrested by the police in April 2010. In October 2010, she
was convicted as a drug trafficker and sentenced to death. There was no word on
her execution during the term of president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. But Joko
Widowo, Indonesia's new president since October 2014, has been taking a hard
stance on drugs and has denied presidential clemency for drug offenders.
7. Veloso's execution was deferred by the Indonesian government in February
2015 following a formal appeal from our Department of Foreign Affairs. Veloso
claims she did not have a capable interpreter during her trial. Last month, the
Indonesian government allowed her family - her mother, sister and 2 children -
to see her in prison.
8. On Mar 26, Indonesia's supreme court rejected Veloso's appeal for a judicial
review, with no explanation. According to a Reuters report, the Indonesian
government is now preparing to move Mary Jane from Yogyakarta to the maximum
security prison on Nusakambangan Island in Central Java.
9. The date of her execution has yet to be announced.
10. Veloso's plight comes on the heels of another high-profile drug-trafficking
case in Indonesia involving a group dubbed Bali 9. They were attempting to
smuggle 8.3 kilograms of heroin out of Bali in 2005. Despite pressure from
international media and appeals from the Australian government on behalf of the
2 Australian ringleaders in the group, their execution by gunfire has not been
overturned.
(source: manila.coconuts.co)
*************
Indonesian Church prays for a Filipino on death row but believed innocent
The Jesuit priest Fr. Bernhard "Teddy" Kieser, professor at the Catholic
University of Sanata Dharma (USD) of Yogyakarta in central Java, has promoted
prayer vigils for a young Filipino woman, who was sentenced to death in
Indonesia for drug trafficking.
She is believed innocent by many. The Supreme Court (MA) has rejected the
request for clemency made by the 30 year-old Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso, who
should be executed in the coming days in the maximum security prison of
Nusakambangan, the so-called Indonesian "Alcatraz".
The priest and professor, spiritual father for the young woman on death row,
has launched a personal campaign for her release. Fr. Bernhard also addressed
to the Bishop of Purwokerto Msgr. Julianus Sunarko, head of the parish of
Cilacap and area of ??Nusakambangan, asking him to promote the prayer campaign
throughout the diocese. He is also looking to involve the Philippine Embassy in
Jakarta, which so far has not attempted to help the fate - judicial and
personnel - of its citizen.
Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso, a simple woman and mother of 2 children, at age 25
moved to Malaysia to work as a domestic worker. A local boss, active in
recruiting migrant workers and placing them among various families, entrusted
her with an assignment: to carry a suitcase - the contents of which the young
Filipino knew nothing- and deliver it to some people who would have met her at
the Yogyakarta airport in Indonesia.
On reaching her destination, Mary Jane was checked by border police who
discovered, 2.6 kg of heroin in the bag, worth a total of about 500 thousand
dollars. That was in April 2010 and since then the woman's judicial and
personal ordeal began.
During the trial she was not given adequate assistance, and only recently,
thanks to the efforts of the priest, has her drama began circulating within the
Catholic community first, and then public opinion. Among other things at first
the young woman hid her situation from her family and, only recently, her
relatives were allowed to meet her in prison.
This is a far cry from the global outcry that surrounded other cases such as
that of the mentally disabled Brazilian also likely to be executed. Both
judicial cases are a result of the "zero tolerance" campaign launched by the
Indonesian authorities against drug trafficking, which often ends up affecting
only common criminals or innocent victims.
(source: asianews.it)
INDIA:
Abu Salem moves Supreme Court against conviction in Pradeep Jain murder case
A month after the special TADA court here sentenced extradited gangster Abu
Salem to a life imprisonment in builder Pradeep Jain murder case, he has moved
the Supreme Court with an appeal.
"We have filed an appeal saying that as per the extradition treaty (with
Portugal), the court cannot hand down life imprisonment to Salem," his lawyer
Saba Qureshi told PTI.
Under TADA, the appeal is filed directly in the Supreme Court and not the High
Court. Judge GA Sanap had noted in his February 25 ruling that the court has to
apply the Indian law while the government can exercise its power in the matter
of execution of sentence (by commuting it, etc).
Qureshi also said the offence of criminal conspiracy cannot be invoked against
Salem.
"Moreover, the judgement is based on Salem's confession which he did not give
voluntarily," she said.
In January 2012, Portugal's Supreme Court had upheld an order which cancelled
Salem's extradition for "violation" of deportation rules by Indian authorities
who slapped new charges against him which attract death penalty.
Salem's driver Mehndi Hassan was also given a life imprisonment, while
co-accused, builder Virendra Jhamb's sentence was set off against stay in
prison as under-trial.
On March 7, 1995, Jain was shot dead in suburban Juhu after he refused to hand
over his property to Salem (who was then outside the country).
The court had, in January last year, dropped some charges against Salem after
the prosecution said it needed to withdraw them so that India's relations with
Portugal were not affected.
Salem, also an accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, was extradited
from Portugal on November 11, 2005.
(source: Press Trust of India)
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