A Filipina who spent nearly 15 years on Indonesia's death row tearfully reunited with family members Wednesday after arriving in Manila, where she now awaits a hoped-for pardon in a women's prison.
Mother of two Mary Jane Veloso landed at daybreak, then was transferred to the local prison following a repatriation deal between the two countries over a decade in the making.
The 39-year-old was arrested and sentenced to death in 2010 after the suitcase she was carrying was found to be lined with 2.6 kilograms (5.7 pounds) of heroin, in a case that sparked uproar in the Philippines.
Veloso wept as she hugged one of her sons and her parents inside the Correctional Institution for Women in Manila, where she is being detained under the terms of a transfer agreement with Indonesia which removed the possibility of her execution.
She flew home without handcuffs alongside Filipino correctional officials on an overnight commercial flight that followed a handover ceremony in Jakarta, marking "the end of a harrowing chapter in Veloso's life", the corrections bureau said in a statement.
"This is a new life for me, and I........