INDONESIA EXECUTES DRUG SMUGGLERS BY FIRING SQUAD.

Sylvester Obiekwe Nwolise, Okwudili Oyatanze, Raheem Agbaje Salami [aka] Jamiu Owolabi Abashin and Martin Anderson are four Nigerians executed in Indonesia with 4 others for drug trafficking. Indonesia has executed eight out of nine drug convicts by firing squad despite last-ditch appeals by Australia's foreign minister for a stay of execution so that claims of corruption during the trials of two Australian prisoners could be investigated. The executions were carried out after midnight at exactly 17:30 GMT at Besi prison on Nusakambangan Island on Tuesday, after the inmates were given 72-hours notice. Over the weekend, authorities had asked the nine convicts, which included two Australians, four Nigerian men, one man each from Brazil and Indonesia and a Filipino woman for their last wishes. However, the execution of the Filipina, Mary Jane Veloso, was spared at the last minute when someone suspected of recruiting her surrendered to police in the Philippines. The attorney general's spokesman told the Reuters news agency late on Tuesday. "The execution of Mary Jane Veloso 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," Tony Spontana, spokesman for the attorney general said. "Mary Jane has been asked to testify." Earlier, Filipino migrants had rallied in Hong Kong on behalf of Velose, a 30yr old mother of two whose supporters said was tricked into carrying a suitcase loaded with heroin. Al Jazeera's Step Vaessen, reporting from Cilacap in Indonesia, said while there was an outpouring of joy among Filipinos that Velose had been spared, there would be a different reaction from Australia after Jakarta rejected last ditch pleas for clemency. "The executions could cause a diplomatic fallout between Australia and Indonesia similar to earlier this year when the Netherlands and Brazil recalled their ambassadors after their nationals were killed," she said. Australia had mounted a sustained campaign to save its citizens, who have been on death row for almost a decade. Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were the Australian ring-leaders of the so-called "Bali Nine" heroin trafficking group who were arrested at the main airport on the holiday island in April 2005 for trying to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin to Australia. The seven other members of the Bali Nine, all Australians, were jailed in Indonesia and did not face the death penalty. The families of the Australian convicts had paid an anguished final visit to their loved ones earlier on Tuesday, wailing in grief as ambulances carrying empty white coffins arrived at the prison. Julie Bishop, Australia's foreign minister, told media earlier in the day that she had asked for a stay in their executions, saying allegations in the Australian media that their judges had requested money to commute the death sentences were "very serious". Indonesian President Joko Widodo said that such concerns should have been conveyed a decade ago when the case went through the courts. A former lawyer of the prisoners, Muhammad Rifan, told Australia's Fairfax Media on Monday that Indonesian judges had requested more than $100,000 in return for prison terms of less than 20 years. But Rifan said the judges later told him they had been ordered by senior legal and government members in Jakarta to impose a death penalty, so the deal fell through. Among the condemned on Tuesday was Brazilian, Rodrigo Gularte, who had been diagnosed by Indonesian medics with schizophrenia. Gularte, 42, was arrested in 2004 at a Jakarta airport after trying to enter the country with 6kg of cocaine hidden in a surfboard. The four Nigerians include; Sylvester Obiekwe Nwolise, Nwolise is a 49-year-old Nigerian who was found guilty in September 2004 of trafficking 1.18 kilos of heroin through Sukarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta in 2002. His clemency appeal was rejected in February this year. The previous month, Indonesia’s national narcotics body said he was running a drugs ring in jail, according to Nigeria’s National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA). He was also sentenced to death in 2005. Okwudili Oyatanze 45yrs old, was sentenced to death for trafficking heroin, also through Sukarno-Hatta airport in 2001. Raheem Agbaje Salami. The NDLEA said Salami appears to be Nigerian but holds a Spanish passport and is thought to be also known by the name Jamiu Owolabi Abashin. He entered Indonesia using a Spanish passport under the name Raheem Agbaje Salami. He was caught with five kilos of heroin inside a suitcase at the airport in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city, on September 2, 1998 and was sentenced to life imprisonment the following year. That was reduced by the high court to 20 years but he was later given the death sentence by the supreme court. Martin Anderson. There is some confusion about Anderson’s nationality. A spokesman for Indonesia’s attorney-general said he is Nigerian but Nigeria’s NDLEA said he is a Ghanaian citizen who was born in London in 1964. He was arrested in Jakarta in 2003 and sentenced to death. His clemency appeal was rejected earlier this year. Amnesty International condemned the executions saying they showed a "complete disregard for due process and human rights safeguards." "Some of the prisoners were reportedly not provided access to competent lawyers or interpreters during their arrest and initial trial, in violation of their right to a fair trial which is recognized under international and national law," Rupert Abbott, Amnesty's Research Director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific said. "Gularte, had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and international law clearly prohibits the use of the death penalty against those with mental disabilities," Abbott added. Fourteen people have now been put to death in Indonesia this year, and the government has announced plans for further executions this year.