Filipina who won a last-minute reprieve from an Indonesian firing squad returns home

Associated Press

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian authorities have returned a Filipina woman to the Philippines who had been on death row and nearly executed by firing squad in Indonesia in 2015, after a longstanding request from her home country. Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso had spent almost 15 years in prison for drug trafficking but won a last-minute reprieve. Her transfer removes the possibility of execution. The Philippines, Asia’s largest Roman Catholic nation, has long abolished the death penalty. She has alleged that criminal syndicate duped her into being an unwitting accomplice and drug courier.