25 November 2024 :

Intense and sustained diplomatic work between Indonesia and the Philippines has paved the way for the repatriation of Mary Jane Veloso, who was sentenced to death in 2010 on charges of drug trafficking, Asia News reported on November 20, 2024.
In 2015, when her execution was about to be carried out along with that of eight other prisoners, the then Philippine president, Benigno Aquino III, asked his Indonesian counterpart, Joko Widodo, to allow Veloso to testify against members of the drug and human trafficking network.
Widodo turned down several clemency requests and only the recent arrival of Prabowo Subianto to the presidency was it possible to repatriate Veloso.
“This is a wonderful development and a fruit of successful diplomacy,” Cardinal-designate Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan told AsiaNews.
“There is a Talmudic saying: ‘To save one life is to save the whole world.’ We do not believe in capital punishment, whether done according to the law or extrajudicially,” said Bishop David, who also chairs the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).
“After over a decade of diplomacy and consultations with the Indonesian government, we managed to delay her execution long enough to reach an agreement to finally bring her back to the Philippines,” said Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in a statement on November 20. 
“I extend my heartfelt gratitude to President Prabowo Subianto and the Indonesian government for their goodwill. This outcome is a reflection of the depth of our nation’s partnership with Indonesia – united in a shared commitment to justice and compassion,” Marcos added. 
Prabowo and Marcos met on two occasions: The Indonesian president visited Manila before his inauguration, while Marcos attended Prabowo’s swearing-in ceremony in Indonesia last month.
Veloso, who is now 39, was accused in 2010 of trying to smuggle 2.6 kg of heroin into Indonesia. The mother of two has always maintained her innocence.
Born into a low-income family in Nueva Ecija, a province located in the central Luzon region, she worked as a domestic worker in Dubai but was travelling to Indonesia to escape an abusive employer.
Her recruiter, Christine (aka Cristina), asked Veloso to fly from Kuala Lumpur to Yogyakarta, giving her 0 and a suitcase to deliver to a man.
Veloso was stopped at Yogyakarta's Adisucipto Airport because heroin was found wrapped in aluminium foil concealed inside the lining of the suitcase.
In 2015, President Benigno Aquino III personally called the then Indonesian Foreign Minister, Retno Masurdi, the day before Veloso's execution. Only 11 hours was left, but the execution was postponed.
That year, several other foreign nationals were put to death, including two Australians who led a group involved in drug smuggling.
The Philippine Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, Eduardo de Vega, explained that Indonesia agreed to send Veloso home without asking for anything in return, adding that the details are still being worked out.
The Philippine ambassador to Indonesia hopes that Veloso will be able to return home before the end of the year. For her part, Veloso would like to go home for Christmas.
Veloso’s transfer would remove the possibility of her facing an execution because the Philippines, Asia’s largest Roman Catholic nation, has long abolished the death penalty.

09 May 2024 :

The Medan District Court on May 8, 2024 found three defendants, including a woman dubbed the "drug queen" by local media, guilty of trafficking and sentenced them to death.
Hanisah, also known as Nisa Binti Abdullah, her husband Al Riza, and co-defendant Maimun were convicted of trafficking at least 52 kilograms of methamphetamine and 129 kilograms of ecstasy pills.
Three co-defendants, Narul, Hamzah, and Mustafa, were sentenced to life imprisonment.
Presiding Judge Abdul Hadi Nasution said the court found no mitigating factors to consider leniency for the six defendants.
The defendants were found guilty of committing an "extraordinary crime" with substantial physical evidence against them, the judge said.
The country's tough anti-drug law stipulates the death sentence for trafficking more than 5 kilograms of plant-based narcotics or more than 5 grams of non-plant-based illicit drugs.
In previous hearings, prosecutors recommended the death penalty for all six defendants.
Two other suspected members of the drug ring, identified as Salman and Erul, remain at large.
According to court documents, Hanisah and Maimun were offered payments for smuggling drugs from Malaysia to the Sumatran cities of Medan and Palembang during a meeting with suspected drug suppliers Salman and Erul in the neighboring country on October 22, 2022.
They were promised a payment of Rp 5 million for every pack of meth and Rp 10,000 for every ecstasy pill smuggled to Sumatra.
As a start, the drug suppliers gave them Rp 339 million (around $21,000) to buy a car and rent a warehouse on Sunggal Street in the district of Medan Sunggal, Medan.
Hanisah enlisted her husband, Al Riza, to supervise the warehouse.
On the morning of August 8 last year, police raided the warehouse only hours after it received deliveries of a large amount of meth and ecstasy pills.
The police's anti-narcotics squad discovered the meth concealed in 50 packs of Chinese tea weighing 52 kilograms and 70 plastic bags containing ecstasy pills totaling 129 kilograms.

29 April 2024 :

The Medan District Court in Indonesia on April 24, 2024 sentenced a prisoner who was behind the distribution of 45 kg crystal methamphetamine to death.
"The court sentenced the defendant Nasrun alias Agam to the death penalty," said Judge Eriyanto Siagian.
Eriyanto continued, "Nasrun committed actions that did not support the government's program to eradicate drugs, instead of reflecting on his previous mistakes."
The court also handed down life sentences to four other suspects and imposed a 20-year prison term and a 5 billion rupiah (around 300,000 U.S. dollars) fine on another suspect.
Promised 200 million rupiah (about 12,000 dollars) by Nasrun alias Agam, the five suspects transported 45 kg crystal methamphetamine from Kualanamu Airport in North Sumatra to Aceh and ultimately Lampung on Oct. 3, 2023.

04 December 2024 :

France has asked Indonesia to transfer a French death row convict, who has been jailed for drug crimes in the country since 2005, a senior minister told AFP on November 29, 2024. Indonesia is in discussion with three countries, including France, over the return of several high-profile detainees and aims to transfer the prisoners by the end of December.
"The French embassy has delivered a letter from France's justice minister to Indonesia's law minister dated Nov. 4 containing a request for the transfer of a French prisoner named Serge Atlaoui," said Coordinating Law, Human Rights, Immigration and Correctional Services Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra.The French embassy did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Atlaoui, a welder, was arrested in 2005 in a secret drugs factory outside Jakarta, with authorities accusing him of being a "chemist" at the site.
But the father of four has maintained his innocence, claiming that he was installing machinery in what he thought was an acrylics plant.
He was initially sentenced to life in prison but the Supreme Court in 2007 increased the sentence to death on appeal.
Atlaoui was detained at the Nusakambangan prison island in Central Java following the death sentence, but he was transferred to Tangerang, Banten in 2015 ahead of his appeal. That year, he was due to be executed alongside eight other drug offenders but won a temporary reprieve after Paris stepped up pressure, with Indonesian authorities agreeing to let an outstanding appeal run its course.
In the appeal, Atlaoui's lawyers argued that then-president Joko "Jokowi" Widodo did not properly consider his case as he rejected Atlaoui's plea for clemency, typically a death row convict's last chance to avoid the firing squad. The court, however, upheld its previous decision that it did not have the jurisdiction to hear a challenge over the clemency plea.
Atlaoui is currently detained in a penitentiary in Jakarta, Yusril said.
Other high-profile detainees that are in discussion to be transferred include Mary Jane Veloso, a Philippine woman who was granted a stay of execution in 2015, and the five remaining members of Australia's "Bali Nine", all convicted on drug charges. Two from the group were executed by firing squad, one died of cancer and another was released in 2018.

17 September 2024 :

A Nigerian, Emmanuel Ihejirika, previously sentenced to death for drug trafficking in Indonesia, has been released after years in prison.
A statement by Gabriel Odu in the Public Relations Unit of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission on September 13, 2024 indicated that Ihejirika was released due to pro-bono efforts of Nigerian lawyer, Emmanuel Isha Ogebe, based in Washington DC.
The case drew attention several years ago when a Nigerian delegation, including former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ojo Madueke and Abike Dabiri-Erewa, then a member of the House of Representatives, visited Indonesian prisons to seek clemency for Nigerians on death row.
Four Nigerians, along with an Indonesian and a British citizen, were executed.
Ogebe took up Ihejirika’s case, which he believed was a case of mistaken identity, and pursued it through the Indonesian Supreme Court. His legal work culminated in Ihejirika’s release.
“Ogebe succeeded as he took the case up to the Supreme Court, and Ihejirika was finally let off the hook,” the statement noted.
The Chairman NiDCOM, Abike Dabiri-Erewa reiterated the severe consequences of drug trafficking in Indonesia and urged Nigerians to avoid such crimes.