JAKARTA – Eight drug convicts executed in Indonesia refused blindfolds as they faced the firing squad in the early hours of Wednesday, a news report said.
The prisoners joined in a chorus of Amazing Grace just after midnight as they were executed, the Sydney Morning Herald reported, citing Pastor Karina de Vega who accompanied them.
The eight were shot the "same second, same minute," Indonesia's Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo was quoted as saying by CNN Indonesia. Earlier reports said the executions were carried out at 12.34am.
The prisoners were "executed, bathed and put in coffins," he said in Cilacap, near the Nusakambangan prison island where the executions were carried out.
Australia withdrew its ambassador in protest at the "cruel and unnecessary" execution of its citizens Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran Prime Minister Tony Abbott said.
"We respect Indonesia's sovereignty, but we do deplore what's been done."
Australian consul-general for Bali Majell Hind (left) and lawyer Julian McMahon leave Nusakambangan port in Cilacap as they travel to Nusakambangan maximum-security prison island for the execution of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran on April 29. (AFP photo)
The ambassador was expected to return to Australia with the families of Chan and Sukumaran on Friday, accompanying the bodies.
The other convicts were four Nigerians, an Indonesian and a Brazilian, whose family said he was mentally ill.
A ninth convict, a Philippine mother of two, received a reprieve at the last minute because of new questions about whether she was a victim of human trafficking, not a drug smuggler.
President Benigno Aquino thanked his counterpart Joko Widodo and the Indonesian government for "giving due consideration to the appeal" on behalf of Mary Jane Veloso, 30, presidential spokesman Herminio Coloma said.
"Miracles do come true," Veloso's mother, Celia, told Manila radio station DZMM. "We are so happy. I can't believe it."
French national Serge Atlaoui earlier won a reprieve pending a last-ditch legal challenge.
The foreign ministries of Nigeria and Brazil also issued statements condemning the executions of their citizens.
Amnesty International immediately condemned the executions as "utterly reprehensible" and called for any plans to carry out further executions to be scrapped.