The eight convicts were from Australia, Brazil, Nigeria, Ghana and Indonesia.
“We’ve carried out the executions,” said an Attorney General’s Office (AGO) official, talking to the press on condition of anonymity.
Mary Jane Veloso of the Philippines was spared from execution on appeal from Philippine President Benigno Aquino following the surrender to local police authorities in the Philippines of Veloso’s recruiter on Tuesday.
Aquino told Indonesian President Joko Widodo in a private meeting during the ASEAN summit held in Malaysia early in the week that Veloso can serve as a state witness to identify the group that used her as drug mule.
“We presented [to Indonesia] that it seems to serve both of our interests to keep her [Veloso] alive to be able to testify and serve the ends of justice for both our concerns,” Aquino told reporters in Malaysia.
Filipino boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao on Tuesday also made an appeal to Indonesian President Joko Widodo to spare Veloso from execution.
In his appeal, Pacquiao said: “His Excellency, President Joko Widodo, I am Manny Pacquiao. On behalf of my countryman, Mary Jane Veloso, and the entire Filipino people, I am begging and knocking on your kind heart that Your Excellency will grant executive clemency to her by sparing her life and saving her life from execution.”
Veloso, an overseas Filipino worker (OFW), was arrested in 2010 by Indonesian authorities after they found 2.6 kilos of heroin in her suitcase.
Veloso denied owning the package containing the illegal drug saying she wasn’t aware of its contents as she was just asked to carry it by her recruiter.
Meanwhile, police authorities in the Philippines have taken custody of the person who asked Veloso to carry the suitcase containing the illegal drug.
Appropriate charges are being prepared for filing in court by local authorities.
