Relatives of a woman set to be executed in Indonesia on Wednesday were already flying over to claim her body when they got the news — there would be no corpse to collect.
Her execution had been stayed at the 11th hour after another woman came forward hours before she was to face a firing squad and admitted that she had tricked the mom of two into becoming a drug mule for her.
“Miracles do come true,” said Celia Veloso, the elated mom of Mary Jane Veloso, to a radio station in their native Philippines.
“We are so happy, I can’t believe it,’’ Celia Veloso said. “I can’t believe my child will live.”
The plight of Mary Jane Veloso, a 30-year-old maid and mom of two, gained international attention after she was sentenced to death for smuggling 2.6 kilos of heroin into Indonesia in 2010.
She insisted to authorities that she was innocent and that a woman had convinced her to carry a bag with the drugs onto the plane with her.
But Veloso was convicted and set to be executed along with eight other convicted drug smugglers Wednesday.
All eight men were executed.
Veloso’s life was spared only after a woman turned herself into authorities in the Philippines on Tuesday and confessed that she tricked her.
Veloso’s reprieve came after a personal request by Philippine President Benigno Aquino III to stop her execution. He convinced Indonesian authorities that Veloso’s testimony could help convict the other woman and even more dangerous drug dealers.
Even Filipino boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao — who is in the United States for a title fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. — earlier made a televised appeal to Indonesian president Joko Widodo on Veloso’s behalf.
Still, Veloso’s future is unclear; she remains on death row.
Her looming execution had brought supporters to the Indonesian embassy in Manila, where demonstrators cheered and clapped upon hearing of her reprieve.
Jakarta had already rejected other last-ditch pleas from around the world for clemency for the other drug traffickers, ordering their mass execution.
Officials said the prisoners were given the choice to stand, kneel or sit before the firing squad, and to be blindfolded. Their hands and feet were to be tied.
Twelve marksmen were assigned to fire at the heart of each prisoner; only three had live ammunition. Authorities say this is so that the executioner remains unidentified.
Amnesty International said the executions were “utterly reprehensible.”
