UN urged to help Veloso

Mary Jane Veloso, left, who is on death row in Indonesia for drug offenses, attends a hearing in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, on March 4. AP

HUMAN rights group Karapatan has asked the United Nations for help in saving the life of Mary Jane Veloso, the overseas Filipino worker on death row in Indonesia for narcotics smuggling charges.

In a letter to UN Human Rights Council president Joachim Rüecker dated April 15, Karapatan secretary-general Cristina Palabay asked the body to “exercise its moral suasion on the Indonesian government in overturning the death sentence on Veloso and possibly [granting] her clemency.”

Palabay also asked that the council hold the Indonesian and Philippine governments “accountable” for violating the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Convention on the Rights of All Migrant Workers and their Families.

According to Palabay, Veloso was not accorded rights she was entitled to in the international treaties, wherein both countries were state parties. This included “the right to appear in court with qualified translators in the State of employment, legal representation at all stages of the judicial process, [and] consular support of the State of origin for foreign national defendants throughout the judicial process.”

“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 Philippine government did not provide a lawyer during the crucial period of her six-month trial,” Palabay pointed out in Karapatan’s letter.

“Public prosecutors asked the court to sentence Mary Jane to life imprisonment, but the judges handed down a death sentence,” she added.

Karapatan also criticized the Philippine government for its perceived inability to “protect its citizens.”

According to OFW alliance Migrante International, Veloso is the eighth OFW to be put on death row under President Aquino’s administration.

She was arrested on April 26, 2010, at the Yogyakarta airport after her suitcase yielded 2.6 kilograms of heroin. According to her, the suitcase was provided by her neighbor and godsister Maria Kristina “Tintin” Sergio.

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