WUNRN
Appeal by Karapatan and
Tanggol Bayi in The Philippines
Cristina
"Tinay" Ellazar Palabay - <noztalzia2@gmail.com>
Karapatan
Secretary General and Tanggol Bayi (Defend Women) - Philippines Convenor
https://tanggolbayi.wordpress.com/
URGENT
CALL FROM WOMEN ACTIVISTS IN THE PHILIPPINES
SAVE
FILIPINA MARY JANE VELOSO – STOP THE EXECUTION IN INDONESIA!
We,
human rights advocates, women human rights defenders and concerned people of
different nations, add our voices to the urgent appeal of the Filipino people
and the rest of the world calling on Indonesian President Jokowi Widodo to stop
the execution of Mary Jane Veloso.
Mary
Jane Veloso, a 30-year-old Filipina and mother of two children, was sentenced
to death by the Indonesian Supreme Court in April 2010 for drug trafficking. Veloso’s case was submitted for judicial
review, but her appeal was rejected by the Indonesian Supreme Court last March
26, 2015.
The Indonesian
government has transferred Mary Jane from the city of Yogyakarta to the maximum
security prison in Nusakambangan Island of Central Java to await execution by
firing squad. The notice for execution was served on April 25, 2015, and
according to Indonesian laws, the said decision will be implemented after 72
hours.
Veloso
was a domestic worker in Dubai from 2009 to 2010. She left Dubai and came back
to the Philippines after her employer attempted to rape her. On April 22, 2010,
she was illegally recruited by the daughter of her godfather to work as a
domestic worker in Malaysia. When she arrived in Kuala Lumpur, the same person
told her that the job was not available anymore and that she would instead be
transferred to Indonesia. Upon her arrival at the Jogjakarta airport, Veloso
was apprehended by customs officials. It was there that she found out that she
was tricked into carrying luggage containing 2.6 kilos of heroin.
Hidden
inside Veloso's luggage was 2.6 kilograms 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.
Mary Jane was not provided
a lawyer or translator by the Philippine embassy upon her arrest in 2010.
During her trial, the court-provided interpreter was not a duly-licensed
translator by the Association of Indonesian Translators. Her lawyer during the
course of her trial was a public defender provided by the Indonesian police.
The Phil. government did not provide a lawyer during the crucial period of her
6-month trial. Mary Jane was convicted after a very brief trial period – on
October 2010, just six months after she was arrested. Public prosecutors asked
the court to sentence Mary Jane to life imprisonment but the judges handed down
a death sentence. Based on the timeline provided by the Department of Foreign
Affairs, the Phil. Embassy in Indonesia appealed the trial court sentence to
the Indonesia Court of Appeals in October 2010. The embassy-hired lawyer filed
a final appeal to the Supreme Court in February 2011. [i]
We note the views of human
rights organisations in the Philippines that the Philippine government’s appeal
for clemency for Mary Jane since 2011 was a passive and perfunctory effort,
with no further attempts of such after the moratorium against executions was
lifted by then newly-elected Indonesian president Joko Widodo. Phil. Pres. Benigno
Aquino III only intervened more than a year after Veloso had already been
sentenced to death, through a request for clemency with then-President Susilo
Bambang Yudhyono who imposed a moratorium on executions during his term. This
was later rejected by new President Joko Widodo, who lifted the moratorium as
soon as he took office.
For five years, the Philippine
government and its Department of Foreign Affairs did not actively initiate
contact and worked with the Veloso family, nor provide regular updates on the
status of her case.
According to Mary Jane’s parents, Cesar and Celia, and her sister, Maritess,
they learned of Mary Jane’s imprisonment not from the government but from a
phone call from Mary Jane herself, and a few days later from her alleged
recruiter, Kristina Sergio. The Philippine government had not done anything to
arrest, investigate or even just invite for questioning Mary Jane’s alleged
recruiter and trafficker.
Veloso's execution was
deferred by the Indonesian government in February 2015 following a formal
appeal from the Phil. 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 two children — to see
her in prison.
On March 3 to 4, a two-day
trial was held in Sleman to determine whether there was new evidence in Mary
Jane’s case. Lawyers argued she deserved a case review because she wasn’t given
a capable translator. The head of the foreign language school in Yogyakarta
testified that the translator at the time was indeed their student. To support
Veloso’s case, her lawyers cited as precedent the Supreme Court’s decision in 2007
commuting the death sentence of another convicted drug smuggler, Thai national
Nonthanam M. Saichon, also because of the translator issue. But on March 26,
the Indonesian Supreme Court rejected the case review request.
We acknowledge the
statements of UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon[ii],
UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings/Summary Executions Christof
Heyns[iii], and the UN Human Rights Committee[iv] on the dire lack of fair trial and
due process in the case of foreign nationals on death row, especially that of
Veloso, in Indonesia.
Veloso’s case is indeed
indicative of several violations of the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights[v] and the International
Convention on the Rights of All Migrant Workers and their Families[vi],
wherein both Indonesia and Philippines are State parties, including the right
to appear in court with qualified translators in the State of employment, legal
representation at all stages of the judicial process, consular support of State
of origin for foreign national defendants throughout the judicial process,
inconsistencies in sentences for similar cases, and the application of the
death penalty in drug-related cases[vii].
Mary Jane
Veloso is the eighth migrant worker put on death row under Pres. Aquino’s
watch. Seven have already been executed before her, earning for the Aquino
regime the stature of having the most number of executions of overseas Filipino
workers since the Philippine Labor Export Policy was hatched in 1970.There are
at least 125 more OFWs on death row in other countries where capital punishment
is also imposed.
We
stand with the Filipino people and the rest of the world as one voice to save
Mary Jane Veloso from death row. She is a victim of human trafficking. She was
betrayed, neglected by the Philippine government and from then on, suffered
grave injustice and violations to her rights.
We
join our voices with the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon who have
appealed to the government of Indonesia to refrain from carrying out the
execution.
We
share the thoughts of Jose Ramos-Horta[viii],
former Timor Leste President, who believes that Mary Jane is innocent and is
one of the thousands of women who are forced to leave their beloved country to
work overseas.
We call on fellow women, human rights advocates and defenders of life, human
dignity and justice, to hear the plea of Mary Jane and the Filipino people. We
echo her plea as to hear the plight of Filipino migrant workers who are forced
to work outside the country because of poverty and social injustices that
continue to this day in Philippine society.
NAME
and/or ORGANIZATION
[i] Migrante International, Case Profile: Mary
Jane Veloso, Migrante International, 6 April 2015, available at http://migranteinternational.org/2015/04/06/case-profile-mary-jane-veloso/
[ii] UN Secretary General
Statement, April 25, 2015, New York, available at http://www.un.org/sg/statements/index.asp?nid=8578
[iii] Statement of UN Special
Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings/Summary Executions, February 13, 2015,
available through: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=50087#.VT26oGSqqko
[iv] Statement of UN Human
Rights Committee, April 2, 2015, Geneva, available through: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=15792&LangID=E
[v] UN General Assembly (23 March 1976),
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Articles 2.3(b), 6, 9.2,
14, available at http://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/ccpr.aspx
[vi] UN General Assembly (18
December 1990), International Convention on the Rights of All Migrant Workers
and their Families, Articles 9, 16, 18, 23, available at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cmw/cmw.htm
[vii] UN Human Rights Committee,
General Comment on Article 6, para 7.4.
[viii] Statement of Jose Ramos Horta, available at https://www.facebook.com/officialramoshorta/posts/898883580163527
A Global Tragedy: The Filipino Woman Alleged Drug Courier to be
Executed Alongside Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumuran... She Claims She Didn't
Know Her Suitcase Was Packed with Heroin.
·
Filipina Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso may join Bali Nine drug kingpins
on death row. She was sentenced to death by firing squad in October 2010.
·
·
Ms Veloso claims she was unaware her suitcase contained heroin.
She is the only woman on a list of detainees slated for execution
·
·
By DANIEL PIOTROWSKI FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA
Convicted Australian drug smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran
Sukumaran may be joined on death row in the coming days by a female Filipino
heroin courier.
Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso, 30, was arrested at Yogyakarta Airport on
April 25, 2010 for attempting to smuggle 2.6kg of heroin into the country,
according to an Amnesty International report.
She was sentenced to death by firing squad in October 2010 and has
been imprisoned in Yogyakarta in the years since.
Ms Veloso reportedly maintains she was unaware her suitcases
she was paid to bring into the country contained heroin.
Mary Jane Fiesta Vesolo was arrested at Yogyakarta Airport on
April 25, 2010, for attempting to smuggle 2.6kg of heroin into the country. Ms
Vesolo, who may joined Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran on death row, is
pictured attending a case review.
'Everything had to be organised first before transferring the
prisoners because we do not want them to be in the isolation cells for too long
[before their execution],' Prasetyo told reporters. Ms Veloso is the
only woman among the list of detainees slated for execution, which includes the
Australians and Nigerian national Raheem Agbaje Salami, 45.
Vigils
have been held across the Philippines and the country's government was engaged
in a lobbying effort to have her case reviewed, Rappler.com reported.
Chan and Sukumuran arrived at Nusakambangan, where the executions
will take place, on Wednesday afternoon.
Ms Veloso appeared at an Indonesian case review hearing on
Tuesday, according to the Jakarta Post.
There, her lawyers reportedly argued she had not been able to
understand the trial that led to her execution because of incompetent
translation.
A photograph of Ms Veloso at court published by the Jakarta Post
on Wednesday featured the caption: 'No mercy'.