Filipina drug mule Mary Jane Veloso spared as Bali Nine members Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran executed

Wednesday‎, ‎29‎ ‎April‎ ‎2015

Indonesia has confirmed the only woman who was to be executed alongside Bali Nine ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran has been given a reprieve.
Attorney-General spokesman Tony Spontana confirmed Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso of the Philippines had not faced the executioner on Wednesday morning (AEST).
"There was a request from the Philippine president regarding the perpetrator who's suspected of committing human trafficking and surrendered in the Philippines," he said in a text message.
"MJ is needed for her testimony."

Veloso's lawyer Edre Olalia also confirmed the stay of execution.
She was sentenced to death in October 2010 for attempting to smuggle 2.6 kilograms of heroin into Indonesia from Malaysia in April 2010.
Veloso, who comes from a poor rural family in the Philippines, was reportedly acting as a courier for an international syndicate when she was arrested on arrival at Yogyakarta, central Java from an Air Asia flight from Kuala Lumpur.
Veloso's mother told Philippine radio: "Miracles do come true".
"We are so happy, I can't believe it. I can't believe my child will live," Celia Veloso told radio station DZMM.
"We are relieved that the execution of Mary Jane Veloso was not carried out tonight," said spokesman Charles Jose.
"The Lord has answered our prayers."
Celia Veloso later told radio station DZMM: "We had no more hope. My (other) children were already in the island waiting to pick up her body.
"We are all so happy. Her (Mary Jane's) kids were all awake, yelling 'Yes, yes, mama will live!'"
"I will tell her (Mary Jane Veloso) it is true what she said, if God wants you to live, as long as there is a minute left, he will save you."
"Miracles do come true."
Mary Jane's mother, two children and two sisters had all gone to Indonesia to meet her before her expected execution.
On the street outside the Indonesian embassy in Manila, where a group of activists had been staging a vigil for Veloso, people cheered and hugged each other as news of the reprieve was announced.
Relatives in the family's home town of Cabanatuan also burst out cheering, radio reports said.