Filipina who narrowly avoided death row firing squad leaves Indonesia

A woman from the Philippines who spent almost 15 years on death row in Indonesia and was nearly executed by firing squad is on her way home.

Mary Jane Veloso was sentenced to death in 2010 after she was found carrying 2.6kg (5.7lb) of heroin through an Indonesian airport.

But the 39-year-old mother of two has always maintained she was tricked into carrying the drugs.

She was handed over to Philippine officials on Tuesday night, after the two governments reached a deal to allow her to return home.

“This is a new life for me and I will have a new beginning in the Philippines,” she told a news conference, adding that she wanted to spend Christmas with her family.

“I have to go home because I have a family there, I have my children waiting for me.”

While the agreement states that Ms Veloso will return as a prisoner, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos could grant her a reprieve.

Ms Veloso was arrested in April 2010 at Yogyakarta airport.

She said she was convinced by the daughter of one of her godparents to travel to Indonesia to start a new job as a maid.

She claimed that the woman’s male friends gave her new clothes and a new bag, which she was unaware had heroin sewn into it.

She was due to face the firing squad in 2015, but the Philippine government won a last-minute reprieve for her after the woman suspected of recruiting her was arrested and put on trial for human trafficking, while Ms Veloso was named a prosecution witness.

Her reprieve was so late that several newspapers in the Philippines went to print with front pages and headlines reporting it had happened.

Ms Veloso’s case drew widespread public sympathy in the Philippines, which does not have the death penalty.

Her circumstances were familiar to many in the Philippines, where it is common for women to escape poverty by seeking work abroad as domestic helpers.

“I bring a lot of things, such as guitar, books, knittings … even this T-shirt I’m wearing was given by my friends,” she said while leaving prison for the airport.

Her transfer comes just days after the five remaining members of the infamous “Bali Nine” drug ring returned home after serving nearly 20 years in Indonesian prisons.