Eight drug convicts were executed by an Indonesian firing squad early on Wednesday but a Filipina who was on death row with the Australians, Nigerians, a Brazilian and an Indonesian was unexpectedly not among them, local media reports said.
The execution of Mary Jane Veloso by an Indonesian firing squad was delayed at the last minute after one of her recruiters surrendered to police in the Philippines, the attorney general’s spokesman said on Wednesday.
“The execution of Mary Jane (Veloso) has been postponed because there was a request from the Philippine president related to a perpetrator suspected of human trafficking who surrendered herself in the Philippines,” said Tony Spontana, spokesman for the attorney general. “Mary Jane has been asked to testify.”
The eight who were executed as had been scheduled were Indonesian Zainal Abidin, Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, Brazilian Rodrigo Gularte, Nigerians Sylvester Obiekwe Nwolise, Raheem Agbaje Salami and Okwudili Oyatanze, Ghanaian Martin Anderson.
Suhendro Putro, funeral director with the Javanese Christian Church (GKJ) in Cilacap, said in a short message service that “the executions were carried out at 12:30 a.m.”
The Attorney General’s Office spokesman Tony Spontana said the government had agreed to the final requests fielded by two Australian death-row convicts for their bodies to be flown to Australia for burial.
A Cilacap Police officer said that after the executions, prayers were said for each person according to their respective religion. “The executions went well, without any disruptions,” he said.
The AGO stated that the executions had been carried out after it had heard all eight convicts’ final requests.
(Courtesy Reuters/The Jakarta Post)
