Indonesia kills 8 on drug charges, delays execution of woman

April 26, 2015: A worker arranges coffins that will be delivered to the prison island of Nusakambangan onto a truck ahead of the imminent executions of drug convicts on death row, at a church compound in Cilacap, Central Java, Indonesia. (AP)

Indonesia's attorney general said Tuesday that the execution has been delayed of a woman Philippine convict, but eight others have been killed by a firing squad, despite an international outcry.

The prisoners -- two Australians, four Nigerians, a Brazilian and an Indonesian man – were shot by police firing squads around 12:25 a.m. local time at a site near the Pasir Putih prison on the island of Nusa Kambangan, the office of Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo said, according to the New York Times. Brazil's foreign ministry confirmed the execution of a Brazilian.

The seven foreigners and one Indonesian man who were executed on drug charges were visited Tuesday by their relatives for the last time.

Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso had been arrested in 2010 at the airport in the central Indonesian city of Yogyakarta, where officials discovered about 5.5 pounds of heroin hidden in her luggage.

Prasetyo said her execution was put off because her alleged boss had been arrested in the Philippines, and the authorities there requested Indonesian aid in pursuing the case.

"Mary Jane has been asked to testify," said Tony Spontana, spokesman for the attorney general.

Ambulances carrying coffins arrived at the prison island Tuesday.

The nine inmates were given 72-hour notices over the weekend that they would be executed by a firing squad, prompting a flurry of last-minute lobbying by foreign leaders. The United Nations has argued that their crimes -- possession of heroin, marijuana or cocaine -- are not egregious enough to warrant the ultimate punishment.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino III appealed to Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo earlier Monday to spare Veloso's life in a meeting on the sidelines of an annual summit of Southeast Asian leaders in Malaysia.

In Manila, hundreds of activists and supporters of Veloso continued a vigil outside the Indonesian Embassy.

Filipino boxing champion Manny Pacquiao also appealed to Widodo to spare Veloso's life.

"I am begging and knocking at your kind heart that your excellency will grant executive clemency to her by sparing her life and saving her from execution," Pacquiao said in a live interview from Los Angeles with Philippine network GMA News.

Among the condemned are two Australians -- Myuran Sukumaran, 33, and Andrew Chan, 31 -- whose emotional families visited the prison.

Sukumaran's sister, Brintha, wailed in agony and had to be carried through a crowd of media waiting at the ferry port to the island.

Chan received a visit from Febyanti Herewila, an Indonesian Christian pastor who became his wife in a marriage ceremony on the island on Monday.

On Tuesday, Australia's foreign minister defended Prime Minister Tony Abbott against online criticism that he had not done enough to save the lives of Sukumaran and Chan.

Australian actors including Geoffrey Rush, Guy Pearce, Joel Edgerton and Bryan Brown have launched an online video calling for Indonesia to show mercy to the two men.

"Tony, if you have any courage and compassion, you'd get over to Indonesia and bring these two boys home," actor Brendan Cowell said of the prime minister.

But Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said the Australian government was acting on advice from Australian diplomats in Jakarta who were part of a sustained campaign seeking a stay of execution.

"Clearly if traveling to Indonesia would make a difference, we would have gone there," Bishop told Nine Network television.

Abbott has spoken to Widodo several times on the issue, most recently in Singapore in late March at the funeral of Lee Kuan Yew, the city-state's first prime minister, Bishop said.

The head of Europe's human rights watchdog on Tuesday urged Indonesia not to carry out the executions. The France-based Council of Europe holds its 47 member countries accountable to the European Convention on Human Rights, which opposes the death penalty.

"The death penalty is a terrible injustice which can never be put right," Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland said in a statement. He urged Indonesia to refrain from the executions and "then to consider introducing a moratorium on the death penalty with a view to working towards abolition."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.