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Graphic on the eight
foreigners and one Indonesian convict executed in Indonesia
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Indonesia faced
a storm of international protest Wednesday for putting eight foreign drug
convicts before a firing squad, but Filipinos rejoiced after a compatriot was
spared at the last minute.
GRAPHITTI NEWS can confirm that the disparity
in the number of Nigerians executed was as a result of the cloud over
the nationality of Martin Anderson whom the Indonesian authorities failed to
ascertain definitively.
Abike Dabiri-Erewa, honourable member of the
House of Representatives, disclosed that there were more Nigerians on
death-row in Indonesia, for drug trafficking offences.
Australia withdrew its ambassador in protest at what
it called "cruel and unnecessary" executions, Brazil expressed strong
regret and France vowed a diplomatic battle to save a citizen still on death
row.
Indonesia staunchly defended the executions as a vital
front of its "war" on drugs, as testimony emerged of how the
condemned men went singing to their deaths.
The eight -- two from Australia, one from Brazil and
three confirmed from Nigeria -- were shot along with one Indonesian, despite strident
foreign appeals and pleas from family members.
Brazil expressed "deep regret" at the
execution of its national, who is mentally ill according to his family, and
said it was weighing its next move.
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Photographs of executed drug convicts are displayed at
the hospital morgue in Jakarta, on April 29, 2015 ©Bay Ismoyo (AFP)
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The condemned men reportedly all refused blindfolds
and sang hymns, among them "Amazing Grace", as they went to face the
firing squad in a jungle clearing, according to a pastor who was with them.
As the clock ticked down to midnight, a group of
tearful supporters also sang hymns, embraced and held candles aloft during a
vigil at the port in Cilacap, the gateway to the prison island of
Nusakambangan.
A Filipina originally set to be executed was given an
11th hour reprieve after a woman who allegedly duped her into ferrying drugs to
Indonesia came forward to police in the Philippines.
The reprieve for Mary Jane Veloso was hailed in the
Philippines as a miracle and a gift from God, but Indonesian Attorney General
Muhammad Prasetyo stressed it was only a "postponement" to allow time
for police investigations.
He added: "We are fighting a war against horrible
drug crimes that threaten our nation's survival.
"I would like to say that an execution is not a
pleasant thing. It is not a fun job.
"But
we must do it in order to save the nation from the danger of drugs. We are not
making enemies of countries from where those executed came. What we are
fighting against is drug-related crimes."
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