Mary Jane Veloso, known to have been convicted in Indonesia for drug smuggling and sentenced to death, will not be among the first round of executions carried out when capital punishment is resumed after a lull.
Indonesia imposed a suspension on executions for five years before recommencing them in 2013. It incited international outrage in April 2015 with the execution of eight drug traffickers, seven of them foreigners.
READ : Mary Jane Veloso Faces Death Again by Firing Squad Over Drug Smuggling Case In Indonesia
After the uproar, authorities said they were delaying executions while the government focused on resuscitating the economy. However, President Joko Widodo’s administrator has this year promised to recommence executions by firing squad.
A Philippine maid, Mary Jane Veloso, got a last-minute amnesty last year, following a request from Manila after an employment recruiter, whom Veloso had blamed of planting drugs in her baggage, handed herself over to the police in the Philippines.
READ : Mary Jane Veloso lawyers see trial over within the year
Attorney General H.M. Prasetyo said Veloso is not included in the first round of executions. They are still waiting on the legal process in the Philippines.
Prasetyo said 16 prisoners will be executed this year, including nationals from Nigeria and Zimbabwe, but declined to give a specific time frame. He said the number will be more than doubled next year.
Indonesia has declared a “drug emergency” and swore no mercy for drug traffickers.
Authorities have not given a breakdown of the numbers of foreigners on death row, but French, British, and Filipinos are known to be among them.
