Filipino drug convict in Malaysia spared from death penalty
13 hours ago
MANILA,
Philippines (AP) — Malaysia's pardons board has commuted to life
imprisonment the death sentence on a Filipino woman convicted of
smuggling 5 kilograms (11 pounds) of cocaine at Kuala Lumpur's airport,
the Philippine Embassy in the Malaysian capital said Tuesday.
The
embassy said the pardons board of the central state of Selangor headed
by Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah Al-Haj on June 15 commuted Jacqueline
Quiamno's sentence following clemency requests from the embassy and her
family.
The good news comes as
the fate of another Filipino woman on death row in Indonesia for
illegal drugs remains unclear. Mary Jane Veloso's execution on April 29
was postponed after appeals by the Philippines to allow her to testify
against her arrested illegal recruiters.
Quiamno
was arrested in 2005 and the Shah Alam High Court handed her a guilty
verdict in November 2010. The verdict was affirmed by the Federal Court
in July 2013.
The embassy, in
a statement conveyed "its heartfelt appreciation to the Sultan of
Selangor and the Selangor Pardons Board for this sterling manifestation
of benevolence and compassion."
The
death penalty remains in the statute books of Malaysia, and local
courts continue to impose it in grave offenses. But the embassy said
there has been a reluctance to carry it out in recent years pending the
government's final decision on the proposal to abolish capital
punishment. - Yahoo News, 30/6/2015
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