Indonesia executes drug convicts, Filipina not among them: Reports

Eight drug-trafficking sentences from several countries were executed by an Indonesian firing squad soon on Tuesday, media said, but a Filipina who was on decease row with them was unexpectedly spared at the last minute.

There was no immediate official confirmation that the eight men had been beheaded.  Earlier, Jakarta rejected last-discard pleas from around the world for clemency to be granted the drug traffickers from Nigeria, Australia, Indonesia and Brazil, ordering their group execution to continue within hours.

A spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office said the execution of Mary Jane Veloso, a mother of two who was jailed in 2010 after she arrived in Indonesia with 2.6 kg of dope hidden in her suitcase, had been postponed. He said the delay came in response to a request from Manila after a drug courier gave herself up to the police in the Philippines on April 28.  People holding patrol outside the Indonesian embassy in Manila cheered and clapped on hearing the news.

The proposed death penalties were condemned by the United Nations,

and have strained ties between Australia and Indonesia in particular.

Hours before the expected beheading, crowds gathered in cities across Australia to hold vigils for Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, holding placards and calling for Australia to respond strongly to its neighbour if the executions proceed.