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This is going to be a high-profile case.
The government says it will “exhaust all possible legal means” to save Mary Jane Veloso, the Filipina who is on death row in Indonesia after being convicted of drug trafficking.
A second appeal to reconsider her death sentence was being considered after Indonesia’s Supreme Court rejected her request for judicial review.
“We will continue to exhaust all possible legal means to save the life of Mary Jane Veloso,” Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose told AFP.
Vice President Jejomar Binay, the presidential envoy for migrant workers’ concerns, also issued a public statement pleading to Indonesian President Joko Widodo to lower Veloso’s sentence.
“I ask this, with the deepest bond of brotherhood and friendship of our peoples, a bond that I am confident will only grow stronger in the years to come,” Binay said in a statement.
The Indonesian Supreme Court rejected Veloso’s appeal on Wednesday without providing details. The decision was announced Thursday on its website.
Veloso sought a judicial review saying she did not have a capable interpreter during her trial, Jose said.
She was caught at Yogyakarta airport, on the main island of Java, carrying 2.6 kilogrammes (5.73 pounds) of heroin on a flight from Malaysia in April 2010.
With reports and photo from AFP
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