Mary Jane Veloso pardoned by Philippine president

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos said Friday that he has pardoned Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina who spent nearly 15 years on death row in Indonesia for drug trafficking before being sent back to the Philippines.

Veloso, 40, is expected to be freed because there are no other active cases against her, though Marcos did not say when that would happen.

“I signed her pardon yesterday,” Marcos told reporters during a visit to Batac in the northern Philippines.

Veloso was arrested and sentenced to death by an Indonesian court in 2010 after the suitcase she was carrying was found to be lined with 2.6 kilograms of heroin. Jakarta handed her over to Manila in 2024 under an arrangement that let her serve the rest of her sentence in a Philippine prison.

Her case drew public attention in the Philippines, where many people work abroad. Veloso and her supporters say she was tricked by an international drug syndicate.

Veloso narrowly avoided execution in 2015 after Philippine authorities arrested her suspected recruiter. Her mother, Celia Veloso, said Mary Jane's two sons were happy after hearing of the pardon through her lawyer.