Ghanaian Martin Anderson executed in Indonesia

Martin Anderson, the Ghanaian convicted of drug offenses in Indonesia, and eight others, have been executed by firing squad by the Indonesia government.

Anderson, also known as Belo, was convicted of possession of 50 grams of heroin in Jakarta in November 2003.

The South Jakarta District Court sentenced him to death in June 2006.

Meanwhile, reports have emerged that Anderson, 50, was holding a fake Ghanaian passport and rather hailed from Nigeria.

The others are Silvester Obiekwe and Raheem Agbaje Salami (Nigerians), Zainal Abidin (Indonesian), Rodrigo Gularte (Brazilian), Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran (Australians) and Serge Atlaoui (French).

The execution was delayed following an appeal from the Australian government for the release of their two citizens.

But they lost an appeal for the State Administrative Court to hear their case.

According to reporters near the scene of the execution, a number of cars, including police cars, have entered through a gate.

Police are telling the people to leave the area and go home, saying: "There is nothing more."

Pictures from the scene show that officers have cleared a route through the crowds, as they await the arrival of ambulances carrying the bodies of the executed men.

Meanwhile, the Philippines department of foreign affairs has confirmed to reporters that Mary Jane Veloso was not executed along with the other prisoners tonight.

The reprieve is said to be a temporary one, however.

Earlier today, the Philippines government sent an “extremely urgent” letter to the Indonesian attorney-general asking for a “suspension of execution of the death sentence”.

This followed news that Maria Kristina Sergio, the woman who allegedly recruited Veloso as a (she says unwitting) drugs courier, apparently handed herself into police in the Philippines.

Reports say Veloso’s death sentence has been postponed so that she can act as a witness in any trial of Sergio.