Mary Jane Veloso is convicted of drug smuggling in Indonesia. ARCHIVE

The family of Mary Jane Veloso, who is convicted of drug smuggling in Indonesia, made a fresh appeal for clemency from the Indonesian president on Wednesday (January 10). Veloso is on death row after being found guilty of bringing 2.6kg of heroin into Indonesia in 2010. The Muslim country has very strict laws against drugs. In Manila on Wednesday, Veloso’s family and supporters held a small protest near the presidential palace during Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s visit to the Philippines. Veloso’s mother, Celia, reportedly wrote a letter that was addressed to Widodo and delivered to the palace by the family’s lawyer to ask for leniency for her daughter. "I am begging and pleading you to help free my daughter who has been suffering innocently for fourteen years," Celia Veloso said in the letter, "Today is the (39th) birthday of my daughter... I am hoping that she would be released." Celia also reportedly wrote a separate letter for Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. calling him their “only hope” in the case. Veloso, who has two children, was spared from the firing squad in 2015 in a last-minute reprieve for the Filipina. Her family said she went to Indonesia to work as a maid but was duped by an international drug syndicate into carrying heroin. ICA/Expat Media
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