Indonesia Moves Mary Jane Veloso To Island For Execution; Social Media Erupts For Filipina Single Mother’s Life

Indonesia moved Mary Jane Veloso on Friday to an island where she would face execution. The Filipina maid was convicted of drug trafficking.

Veloso is one of the 10 drug convicts Indonesia was scheduled to execute in March. However, the executions were put off after legal appeals had been made at the last moment. The convicts also include Australian convicts Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran. Australia has been appealing hard to Indonesia so that they are granted clemency. However, Indonesia has been quite strict in refusing the appeal.

Veloso was moved to Nusa Kambangan in an armoured personnel carrier and car which arrived at a port. The confirmation of Veloso’s transfer came from Tony Spontana, a spokesman for the Indonesian attorney general.

Indonesia has not yet announced when Veloso will be executed. However, people have started begging the Indonesian Government over the internet to spare her life. There has been a huge social media campaign in favour of the Filipina single mother in Indonesia. The hashtag #MaryJane became the No. 2 trending topic on Twitter in Indonesia on Friday.

Dewi Candraningrum tweeted that the Filipina mother was a victim of trafficking. “Is my President a murderer?” asked the chief editor of feminist magazine Jurnal Perempuan.

Indonesian celebrity chef Rahung Nasution slammed the president of his country, Joko Widodo, for executing poor women like Veloso. Nasution compared Widodo’s actions with the execution of the two Indonesian migrant workers in Saudi Arabia last week.

Not only the well-known faces but common people in Indonesia launched protest against the execution on social media. Some wonder if people’s life is a plaything while some are in favour of I death penalty for drug cases, as long as it’s for big-time drug dealers, not couriers or duped victims like Veloso.

Lawyers for Chan and Sukumaran lodged a new appeal for clemency. However, according to Indonesia’s attorney general, the Australian convicts are no more eligible for any legal avenues. He said that he would not recognise the lawyers’ appeal in the constitutional court.

There are several foreign nationals among the drug convicts lined up for execution. Three are from Nigeria and one each from France, Ghana and Brazil.

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au