Mary Jane Will Go Home, The Philippines Must 'Butter' Indonesian Prisoners

Coordinating Minister for Law, Human Rights, Immigration and Corrections (Kumham Imipas) Yusril Ihza Mahendra emphasized that the Philippine government must approve if there is a request for the transfer of Indonesian prisoners who are sentenced in the country to return to the country.

According to Yusril, this was one of the mutual agreements after the decision to transfer the death row convict of narcotics smuggling case Mary Jane Veloso from Indonesia to return to the Philippines.

"We are moving Mary Jane with legal principles, one of which is that we can also ask the Philippines to transfer Indonesian prisoners and they must agree," said Yusril as quoted by ANTARA, Wednesday, November 20.

Yusril emphasized that the Indonesian government could ask for the transfer of Indonesian citizens from the Philippines to return to the country and carry out the Philippine court's decision against the Indonesian citizen convict.

This, he continued, also applies if later there is a similar agreement with other countries.

"So, we maintain these principles to equalize the position of each country, and each country also respects the sovereignty of their respective laws," he said.

In relocating Mary Jane, Yusril said there were several conditions that had been submitted by the Indonesian government and accepted by the Philippine government.

The first requirement is that the Philippines must recognize the Indonesian court's decision because Indonesia has the authority to try Filipino citizens who commit crimes in the territory of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia.

Then the second requirement, namely security guarantees to return prisoners to the Philippines is the responsibility of the country.

The transfer of Mary Jane was carried out at the request of the Philippine government. The Indonesian government accepted a request to transfer Mary Jane from Philippine Justice Minister Jesus Crispin Remulla a few days ago.

Mary Jane is a Filipino citizen who was sentenced to death by the Sleman District Court, Yogyakarta, in 2010 to a narcotics case.