Indonesia Executes 8 Convicts, Filipina Spared: Local Media

Indonesia executed eight drug convicts including two Australians early on Wednesday, but a Filipina was spared at the eleventh hour, local media reported. Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, ringleaders of the so-called "Bali Nine" heroin-trafficking gang, were among convicts who faced the firing squad. Both men were in their early 30s.

The others included a Brazilian, four Africans and one Indonesian. The execution took place on the prison island of Nusakambangan, MetroTV and the Jakarta Post newspaper reported.

Jakarta pressed ahead with the executions despite a wave of global condemnation led by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Australia had mounted a vigorous campaign to save its citizens, who have been on death row for almost a decade. But Indonesian President Joko Widodo, a vocal supporter of the death penalty for drug traffickers, had dismissed the request.

The Philippines department of foreign affairs has confirmed to reporters that Mary Jane Veloso was not executed along with the other prisoners tonight. The reprieve is said to be a temporary one, however.

Earlier Tuesday, the Philippines government sent an “extremely urgent” letter to the Indonesian attorney-general asking for a “suspension of execution of the death sentence”.

This followed news that Maria Kristina Sergio, the woman who allegedly recruited Veloso as a (she says unwitting) drugs courier, apparently handed herself into police in the Philippines.

Reports tonight say Veloso’s death sentence has been postponed so that she can act as a witness in any trial of Sergio.

(Source: NDTV, The Guardian)