A lot of people seem to be claiming credit for the last minute indefinite reprieve on the execution of Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso. A lot of movie characters are reportedly offering huge sums of money for the right to the story with Nora Aunor being tapped to portray another Flor Contemplacion except that Mary Jane is still alive. All of this is well and good.
The claim by Monique Wilson that “they( the Veloso family) were given the run around, being ignored, being shamed, and where their own Philippine lawyer, Edre Olalia, was being kept from them” needs a second look because it elevates the blame to the highest offices in the Philippine government.
“Much of this I myself witnessed in Cilacap – the way they were treated by government and embassy officials like the family have no agency over their decision making. How they were talked down on as if they have no value, how they were always made to feel grateful for the food, for the hotel, for the van – when in fact, this is all owed to them and much more,” Monique laments in her Facebook page later picked up by Rappler and turned into a full-blown article.
But everyone must be reminded that she can still be executed anytime by force of Indonesian law. We are not out of the woods yet.
They gave her an 11th hour reprieve although she can still lose her life. The law is the law. Anyone trying to fast track heroin in Indonesia, for whatever reason, gets death. This is the reason why the court refuses to review her case. We can only point at some perceived weaknesses in their justice system.
This time around, the convicted drug mule, Mary Jane Veloso, said she was conned by her god-sister into carrying a luggage later discovered to contain 2.6 kilos of heroin. She was made to believe a domestic helper’s job was waiting.
Indonesia’s court did not give her credence. They stuck to what is law. Meanwhile, the mastermind and the gang behind the incident is still around waiting for another stupid worker to travel to countries that deals death to innocent mules enticed by a job offer. Sometime ago, however, her recruiter sought protection from Nueva Ecija police following death threats she and her partner received. We will soon know the truth.
Her trial was a window into Indonesia’s dysfunctional justice system. She was not given a trained translator and thus never knew what was happening. She didn’t know it will end with her death. A United Nations advisory vs. countries that advocate cruel and unusual punishment should isolate Indonesia for years, among others.
The Indonesian Supreme Court likewise ruled out a judicial review in what should have been an automatic judicial process since capital punishment was handed by a lower court.
But Indonesia, dubbed as the biggest Muslim country in the world by sheer population, appears to put less value to human life when it comes to people from other countries. Some 130 foreign nationals are languishing in that country’s death row.
Indonesian courts also appear inconsistent in its implementation of justice. In the case of Indonesian citizen Srie Moetarini Evianti, convicted of the same offense as Filipina maid Veloso, the court ruled that she deserves to live because she did not have any prior conviction And yet, a similar court ruled that Veloso deserve to die although she too do not have any prior conviction.
Recently, an Indonesian court commuted to life a death sentence earlier imposed on two Iranians for smuggling 40 kilos of shabu leading observers to note how it compares to 2.6 kilos of heroin.
But Veloso herself seem to have accepted her fate. She only wants to see her entire family, including her two sons age 6 and 12, prior to her execution. She wants her remains to be brought home.
Indonesia knows only too well the Filipino sentiment. They too appealed for clemency for their nationals facing death in other countries. An Indonesian domestic helper Siti Zainab was meted the death penalty in Saudi Arabia. She was executed just the same even as Indonesia lodged a fervent appeal to spare her life. Indonesia vehemently protested her beheading the following day.
The road to Hell is indeed paved with good intentions. Indonesian law no doubt deserves to mete the death penalty to drug traffickers.
But if poverty and similar circumstances conspire to place an innocent in such dire straits –whose intention was merely to gain employment – but was instead used by heartless syndicates to smuggle drugs, there should be a difference. Was she a victim herself?
The intent was employment not smuggling drugs. This is the beauty of Canadian and English law as intent is along with actus rios a prime consideration in all capital offenses. The most serious levels of culpability justify the most serious punishment.
But when a country insist on using a perverted judicial process to inflict injury or death on innocent victims without considering the issue of intent or mens rea (defined in legal jurisprudence as malice aforethought), the Indonesian justice system somehow portrays injustice in all its glory and perfection.
