Mary Jane Veloso returned to Yogyakarta prison

The Yogyakarta Prosecutors’ Office (Kejati) has returned Mary Jane Veloso, a death row inmate from the Philippines, to the Wirogunan penitentiary in Yogyakarta after the government gave her a last-minute stay of execution early on Wednesday at Nusakambangan prison island in Cilacap, Central Java.

A Kejati team removed Veloso from the Nusakambangan correctional facility at around 5 a.m. local time, arriving at Wirogunan prison at 8 a.m.

“We are entrusting Veloso to the Wirogunan Penitentiary, as her execution has been delayed,” Kejati Yogyakarta head I Gede Sudiatmaja told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

He said the office was obliged to return Veloso to Wirogunan, the prison where she had been imprisoned for around five years, as the Nusakambangan correctional facility did not have special cells for female inmates.

“Veloso will remain at the Wirogunan Penitentiary while waiting for developments in her legal case,” said Sudiatmaja.

The government executed eight drug convicts early on Wednesday on Nusakambangan.

Veloso was spared after a woman who allegedly recruited her to act as a drug courier gave herself up to police in the Philippines on Tuesday.