Boxing icon Manny Pacquiao visited a Filipina on death row in Indonesia yesterday and appealed for clemency, a human rights lawyer said.
Pacquiao and his wife, Jinkee, spent about an hour with Mary Jane Veloso yesterday at a jail in Yogyakarta, International Association of People’s Lawyers president Edre Olalia said, citing his Indonesian colleagues.
Veloso was sentenced to death for drug trafficking after heroin was allegedly found hidden in her luggage at the Yogyakarta Airport in 2010. She was granted a last-minute stay of execution in April, but eight other convicts — two Australians, four Nigerians, a Brazilian and an Indonesian — were executed.
Photo: Reuters
Olalia, a lawyer for the Veloso family, said two judicial reviews have failed to overturn her conviction and death sentence.
He said he is to discuss a possible third appeal with his Indonesian counterparts but believes that “an appeal for clemency may be stronger.”
There was no immediate word on whether Pacquiao has met with Indonesian President Joko Widodo as he had planned, Olalia said.
Pacquiao, who is also a Philippine congressman, is vice chairman of a committee on Philippine overseas workers in the Philippine House of Representatives.
The Philippine Department of Justice on Thursday said that state prosecutors are to file charges of human trafficking, illegal job recruitment and fraud against the woman who allegedly brought Veloso to Malaysia, where she was given a bag that held 2.6kg of heroin.
The woman has surrendered to police and has admitted that Veloso was unaware she was carrying drugs.
During a 30-minute meeting, Pacquiao and his wife Jinkee prayed with Veloso. The convict broke down in tears as she prayed, a government official who witnessed the meeting told reporters, and at one point tightly embraced the boxing star.
DZMM radio in Manila reported that Pacquiao’s wife tearfully embraced Veloso during their meeting. The champion held back his own emotions, but teared up after the meeting where the Bible-quoting boxer joined others in a prayer for Veloso, the report said.
They swapped gifts, with Veloso giving Pacquiao a scarf she had made for the champion, emblazoned with his nickname, “Pacman,” and the boxer giving her money.
However prison officials said they would keep the money for her as it was against the rules for inmates to have cash. They did not say how much it was.
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