Last night, eight prisoners in Indonesia were executed. One woman had her life spared.
Two Australians, along with six other prisoners, were executed by firing squad in Indonesia at 3.25am AEST.
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But as we came to learn Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran had been executed, the startling news came through that one prisoner, Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso, was spared with an extraordinary last minute stay.
The Jakarta Post reported at 1.10am, Mary Jane Veloso’s execution was delayed because the person who recruited her as a drug courier handed themselves in to the police in the Philippines.
Following this revelation, Indonesian President Joko Widodo asked the Indonesian Attorney General H.M. Prasetyo to delay the execution of Ms Veloso just hours before she was due to die.
Related content: The world reacts to the executions of two Australian men.
Mr Prasetyo’s spokesperson, Tony Spontana said: “The execution of Mary Jane 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.
“Mary Jane has been asked to testify.”
News Limited reports Ms Veloso’s family were on a bus bound for Jakarta to collect Mary Jane’s body when the news broke.
Related content: Vale, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.
The mother of Mary Jane has expressed her joy at the news.
Celia Veloso, told Filipino radio station DZMM “miracles do come true.”
“We are so happy, I can’t believe it. I can’t believe my child will live. We had no more hope,” she said.
“My [other] children were already in the island waiting to pick up her body. We are all so happy.
“Her kids were all awake, yelling ‘Yes, yes, mama will live!’ I will tell her it is true what she said: if God wants you to live, as long as there is a minute left, he will save you.”
The execution of the single mother of two had long been protested by the Indonesian public. Guardian Australia reports people cheered, cried and hugged in the streets when they learned of her reprieve.
Mary Jane, 30, was arrested at an airport in 2010, after attempting to smuggle 2.6 kilograms of heroin into Yogyakarta from Malaysia.
According to Rappler, an Indonesian social news site, Ms Veloso is a single mother of two boys from Manila, who initially travelled to Malaysia to be a domestic helper.
After her employment fell through, she agreed to smuggle two suitcases of heroin to Indonesia.
Now, there are reports Ms Veloso was trafficked to Indonesia by a woman known as Maria Kristina Sergio.
According to News Limited, Ms Sergio turned herself into police out of fear for her safety, after it was revealed she recruited Veloso and facilitated her entry into Indonesia.
Ms Sergio has been implicated in the case previously, as Ms Veloso claims she was unaware a suitcase given to her by Ms Sergio’s boyfriend contained the drugs that got her arrested.
Ms Sergio has been arrested by Filipino police and charged with recruiting Veloso. Ms Veloso is required to testify at the trial.
It is assumed, but not yet confirmed, whether Ms Veloso’s execution will still go ahead after her testimony.
Some of the reactions on social media today:
Social media reactions to Bali Nine executions
Read more:
Ben Quilty’s heart-breaking message to the Indonesian President.
These are the people who are due to be executed alongside the Bali Nine duo tonight.
Myuran Sukumaran has painted a moving tribute to the Indonesian President.
This is what the world could lose in 72 hours.
‘A heroin overdose killed by brother. But I stand for Mercy.’
Top Comments
Can you imagine the torture that this young woman has gone through? Up to a few hours before her scheduled death and now she's expected to sign someone else's death warrant before she goes through it all again? How can there be such cruelty in this world? Especially from a far-from-blameless government.
I'm so sorry for the families and friends of all those executed. The executions were a terrible error, and I hope that these will be the last and that Maria's reprieve will be permanent.
Horrible things happen all over the world every day, yet there is something particularly shocking about cold calculated planned murder by a nation state.
If I may,unfortunately, President Widodo advanced the error into a mistake which cannot be rectified.
"An error doesn't become a mistake until you refuse to correct it." Orlando Aloysius Battista (June 20, 1917 - October 3, 1995)