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2nd LD-Writethru: Indonesia executes eight drug, murder convicts

Xinhua, April 29, 2015 Adjust font size:

The execution against eight drug and murder case convicts was completed at 00:25 a.m. western Indonesian time on Wednesday (17:25 GMT on Tuesday), a national TV network reported.

Previously, Indonesia's Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo had confirmed that nine prisoners would be executed. The only one spared was Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso, a Philippine national, TV One reported citing a source at the attorney general office.

TV One reported live from the execution site at the Nusakambangan high security prison in Central Java, showing the eight convicts, from Australia, Nigeria, Brazil and Indonesia, executed by a firing squad.

Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso, a mother of two, was allegedly spared from execution after the person who recruited Jane for smuggling drugs turned herself in to police in the Philippines on Tuesday.

Mary Jane's lawyer Agus Salim said on Tuesday that her testimony was needed to resolve the case in which Jane was arrested for smuggling 2.6 kilograms of heroin in Indonesia's airport in Yogyakarta in 2010.

Indonesia's National Commission on Human Rights said earlier that Mary Jane was a victim of human trafficking.

Indonesia initially listed 10 convicts in the second batch of execution previously scheduled in February this year.

A French national was eventually exempted from the list as he is still waiting for Indonesian court's final decision on his plea in an attempt to be freed from the execution.

Indonesia executed six drug case convicts with several different nationalities in January this year.

Despite pressures from the United Nations and foreign countries, Indonesia is determined to continue executions against drug case convicts, as the country's President Joko Widodo ambitioned to wage a war against drug abuses that have been rampant in the country. Endi