THE Department of Foreign Affairs on Saturday said they will file a second appeal to the Indonesia Supreme Court to save Mary Jane Veloso from firing squad, hoping that the second appeal will be heard this time.
who was caught with illegal drugs at an airport in Indonesia, joins
his grandfather Cesar Veloso in asking the Indonesian government
to review the death penalty imposed on Mary Jane during a media
briefing in Quezon City on Saturday. MANNY PALMERO
“Our first appeal to the Indonesian Supreme Court has been denied and a second appeal is what we are readying now,” Justice Undersecretary Francisco F. Baraan III said in a statement. “We will file for a second appeal for judicial review for better appreciation of the case.”
Baraan said President Benigno Aquino III has done his part by appealing to the compassion of the Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
“We appreciate the concern of all those who are working to save Mary Jane from execution, but whatever action we take now that is possible under our jurisdiction, like investigating the supposed principal of Mary Jane, a certain Kristina Sergio, and even filing a case against her if evidence warrants, may no longer result in a re-opening of the legal proceedings,” he said.
In her application for a judicial review, Veloso’s lawyers had reportedly argued that she was not provided with a capable translator during her first trial. “But we will continue to exhaust every possible remedy, legal and diplomatic, even as we must accord respect to the legal processes of Indonesia, Baraan said.
Veloso was caught at Yogyakarta Airport in Indonesia, on the main island of Java, carrying 2.6 kilograms of heroin on a flight from Malaysia.
Indonesia, one of the countries with toughest anti-drugs laws in the world, is set to execute two high-profile Australian inmates and convicts from France, Brazil, Ghana and Nigeria to die by firing squad after their requests for presidential clemency were rejected.