A woman from the Philippines who spent almost 15 years on death row in Indonesia and was nearly executed by firing squad is on her way home.

Mary Jane Veloso was sentenced to death in 2010 after she was found carrying 2.6kg (5.7lb) of heroin through an Indonesian airport.

But the 39-year-old mother of two has always maintained she was tricked into carrying the drugs.

She was handed over to Philippine officials on Tuesday night, after the two governments reached a deal to allow her to return home.

“This is a new life for me and I will have a new beginning in the Philippines,” she told a news conference, adding that she wanted to spend Christmas with her family.

“I have to go home because I have a family there, I have my children waiting for me.”

While the agreement states that Ms Veloso will return as a prisoner, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos could grant her a reprieve.

Ms Veloso was arrested in April 2010 at Yogyakarta airport.

She said she was convinced by the daughter of one of her godparents to travel to Indonesia to start a new job as a maid.

She claimed that the woman’s male friends gave her new clothes and a new bag, which she was unaware had heroin sewn into it.

She was due to face the firing squad in 2015, but the Philippine government won a last-minute reprieve for her after the woman suspected of recruiting her was arrested and put on trial for human trafficking, while Ms Veloso was named a prosecution witness.

Her reprieve was so late that several newspapers in the Philippines went to print with front pages and headlines reporting it had happened.

The case drew widespread public sympathy in the Philippines (BBC)

Ms Veloso’s case drew widespread public sympathy in the Philippines, which does not have the death penalty.

Her circumstances were familiar to many in the Philippines, where it is common for women to escape poverty by seeking work abroad as domestic helpers.

“I bring a lot of things, such as guitar, books, knittings … even this T-shirt I’m wearing was given by my friends,” she said while leaving prison for the airport.

Her transfer comes just days after the five remaining members of the infamous Bali Nine drug ring returned home after serving nearly 20 years in Indonesian prisons.

(BBC)

In the first public remarks attributed to Bashar al-Assad since he left Syria, the deposed Syrian president has defended his rule and denied planning his departure as armed opposition fighters closed in on Damascus earlier this month.

A statement said to be written by al-Assad and released on the Syrian presidency’s Telegram channel on Monday presented an account of how and why the former president fled Syria.

“First, my departure from Syria was neither planned nor did it occur during the final hours of the battles, as some have claimed,” the statement said.

“On the contrary, I remained in Damascus, carrying out my duties until the early hours of Sunday, December 8, 2024.”

The statement added that as rebel fighters, who al-Assad described as “terrorist forces”, entered the capital, he moved to a Russian base on the coastal city of Latakia to “oversee combat operations”.

But according to the statement, the base came under drone attacks from armed opposition fighters.

“With no viable means of leaving the base, Moscow requested that the base’s command arrange an immediate evacuation to Russia on the evening of Sunday 8 December,” it read.

“This took place a day after the fall of Damascus, following the collapse of the final military positions and the resulting paralysis of all remaining state institutions.”

The statement has not been independently verified. Al-Assad has not made any media appearances since he was granted asylum with his family by Russia.

Opposition forces, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), launched a lightning offensive from the northwestern province of Idlib in November, taking city after city from government forces with little resistance.

They reached Damascus in the early hours of December 8 and announced the end of more than 50 years of the al-Assad family’s iron-fist rule over Syria.  Al-Assad’s presidency, which began after the death of his father Hafez in 2000, saw one of the most devastating wars of the 21st century.

The conflict started in 2011 as Syrians took to the streets to protest against the government as part of the “Arab Spring” pro-democracy uprisings that swept the Middle East that year.

As the demonstrations were met with a deadly crackdown by security forces, the protest movement turned into an armed uprising.

The war, which lasted more than 13 years, fragmented the country, killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions.

Rights groups have accused al-Assad’s authoritarian government of perpetrating rampant human rights violations.

Opposition fighters and rights advocates have said they discovered more horrific abuses and signs of torture and mass executions as they freed jails housing thousands of detainees across Syria this month.

Tens of thousands of Syrians believed to have been in government custody remain unaccounted for.

But in Monday’s statement, attributed to “President Bashar al-Assad”, the former president sounded unapologetic about his years in power, saying he considered himself the “custodian” of a national project backed by Syrians.

“I have carried an unwavering conviction in their will and ability to protect the state, defend its institutions, and uphold their choices to the very last moment,” the statement said.

“When the state falls into the hands of terrorism and the ability to make a meaningful contribution is lost, any position becomes void of purpose, rendering its occupation meaningless.”

[BBC]