Indonesia agrees to repatriate Filipino woman who spent years on death row over drug trafficking

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Indonesia and the Philippines signed a deal on Friday to send home a Filipino death-row drug convict who was nearly executed by firing squad in 2015, as the new administration of President Prabowo Subianto seeks to shore up diplomatic ties with neighboring countries. The agreement, after a decade of negotiations, will allow Mary Jane Veloso to return home by the end of the month, Raul Vasquez, the Undersecretary at the Department of Justice of the Philippines, told a joint news conference with Yusril Ihza Mahendra, Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for Law, Human Rights, Immigration and Correctional. and we will endeavor to let her serve her sentence.” Although there is no treaty between the countries, Indonesia and the Philippines are both members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the transfer of convicts in the ASEAN region is in accordance with the bloc's Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, Vasquez said, “Because of the international committee and mutual courtesy that exists between and among member states of the United Nations and fellow countries in the ASEAN, we do have that mutual desire and intention to promote human rights and to protect human rights of all our citizens,” he said after a signing ceremony in the capital, Jakarta. Mahendra said the transfer agreement was a “historic milestone” between Indonesia and the Philippines, and part of Subianto’s “good neighbor” policy.