After an agreement was reached for her return, Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina who was sentenced to death in Indonesia, is now traveling home.
In 2010, 2.6 kilograms of heroin were discovered concealed in the luggage that Veloso, 39, was carrying, leading to her arrest. She was later found guilty and imprisoned.
Her transfer from a women’s prison in the province of Yogyakarta to another prison in Jakarta, which is more than 418 kilometers away, took place on Sunday. Veloso will take a Wednesday morning flight back to the Philippines from Jakarta, I Nyoman Gede Surya Mataram, an Indonesian immigration and prisons officer said.
She is expected to board a Cebu Airlines flight just after midnight on December 18.
Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Roy Soemirat said there was no official information yet about her transfer. The Philippine Embassy in Jakarta has not commented on the matter.
Veloso and her supporters have long claimed she was tricked by an international drug syndicate. In 2015, she narrowly avoided execution after her suspected recruiter was arrested in the Philippines.
In a recent interview, Veloso described her upcoming release as a “miracle.”
Indonesia has strict drug laws and has executed foreigners in the past. According to rights group KontraS, over 530 people are on death row in Indonesia, most for drug offenses. Of these, 96 are foreigners.
