Indonesia denies rumors of Mary Jane Veloso’s execution

Mary Jane Veloso. (File photo by SURYO WIBOWO / AFP)

JAKARTA — The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) denied rumors in the Philippines that death-row inmate Mary Jane Veloso had been executed in Indonesia.

“No, no it’s not true,” AGO spokesperson Mukri told The Jakarta Post on Sunday. “There have been no [executions]. Just wait for information about the next round.”

Veloso’s Indonesian lawyer, Agus Salim, confirmed that she was still being held at the Wirogunan women’s prison in Yogyakarta.

“The information [about the execution] is not true. Mary Jane is still in prison, awaiting a ruling from the Philippine court,” he told the Post on Sunday.

Veloso was sentenced to death by the Sleman District Court in Yogyakarta in 2010 after being caught with 2.6 kilograms of heroin hidden in her luggage at Adisutjipto International Airport.

She was set to be executed during the wave of executions in April 2015 but was granted a last-minute reprieve after a woman came forward in her home country to admit that she had duped Veloso into smuggling drugs to Indonesia.

Philippine authorities have since asked for her to testify as a witness in the ongoing trial of her alleged trafficker, which remains pending at the Nueva Ecija Regional Trial Court.

Activists in both Indonesia and the Philippines have repeatedly called for Veloso’s release, saying that she was a victim who was being used by a drug cartel.