A woman from the Philippines is now returning home after spending about 15 times on the death row in Indonesia.
In 2010, Mary Jane Veloso was found with 2.66 kg (5. 7 lb ) of cocaine in a Jakarta airports and given a death sentence.
However, the mother of two, 39, has always maintained that she was duped into bringing the medications.
After the two administrations reached a deal that allowed her to return home on Wednesday, she was flown up to Manila.
” This is a new life for me and I will have a new beginning in the Philippines”, she told a news conference, adding that she wanted to spend Christmas with her family.
” I have to come home because I have my children waiting for me there.”
Although the contract specifies that Veloso may go back to prison, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos may grant her a relief. She is currently being held in Metro Manila, the nation’s major female prison.
Veloso was arrested in April 2010 at Yogyakarta airports.
She claimed that one of her relatives ‘ daughters persuaded her to travel to Indonesia to begin a new career as a girl.
She claimed that the person’s male companions gave her new clothing and a bag without the cocaine being sewn into it.
She was due to face the firing squad in 2015, but Benigno Aquino III, who was Philippine president at the time, won a last-minute reprieve for her after the woman suspected of recruiting her was arrested and put on trial for human trafficking. Veloso was named a prosecution witness in that case.
Her reprieve arrived so soon that back pages and articles from newspapers in the Philippines were printed that day.
Ms Veloso’s event drew widespread public love in the Philippines, which does not have the death penalty.
Many people in the Philippines knew about her circumstances, where it is common for women to look for work overseas as domestic helpers to avoid poverty.
” I bring a lot of things, such as guitar, books, knittings… yet this T-shirt I’m wearing was given by my pals”, she said while leaving prison for the airport.
Her transfer comes just days after the five remaining members of the infamous “Bali Nine” drug ring returned home after serving nearly 20 years in Indonesian prisons.