Govt powerless to save death row Aussie
October 23, 2005
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has said there is little more the government can do to save the life of a 25-year-old Melbourne man on death row in Singapore.
Nguyen Van Tuong was sentenced to death after being found in possession of almost 400 grams of heroin at Changi Airport in December 2002.
The Australian government's pleas for clemency were rejected by Singapore last week.
Mr Downer says while he feels terrible about the tragic situation, the government has exhausted all available options.
"Tragically, and I feel very badly about this because I'm a complete opponent of capital punishment, I really do feel terribly sad about this, but I honestly, to be frank about it, I'm not sure that there's much else we can do," Mr Downer told ABC radio.
"We've had the governor-general, the prime minister and me lobbying every imaginable relevant person in Singapore over quite some long period of time now.
"I mean, we can make more appeals but I think at this point it's just not going to have any effect."
He said Singapore has executed a lot of people for drug trafficking over the years.
"They execute somewhere between 30 and 40 people a year for drug trafficking and to get an exception in this case was always going to be a long shot, but we thought it was important to do everything we possibly could," Mr Downer said.
Nguyen's mother, Kim appealed to the federal government to pressure Singapore into reassessing Nguyen's clemency bid.
But Mr Downer said the government had done everything in its power.
"I feel terribly sorry for her, first of all for her son, a most terrible situation to be in, but for the mother, you can only guess how she feels," he said.
"But of course, I think we all know this, in Asia, drug trafficking brings capital punishment.
"We've tried to put a case, in this case ... he's never been convicted of any offence before, he's young, we don't want to see him die, and we've pleaded with them but we've been unsuccessful and I'm not sure that there is anything else we can do.
"If there was something realistic and practical we could do, we would have done it."
Nguyen's lawyer says his value as a witness against drug syndicates was not considered when he was sentenced.
Lex Lasry QC, says Singapore has failed to take into account Nguyen's value as a witness against drug interests, including those in Australia.
"He was apprehended in Singapore attempting to leave Singapore for Melbourne with heroin in his possession, just under 400 grams of it in pure quantity," Mr Lasry told ABC Radio.
"This decision either appears to be a bad mistake, an error of judgment, or to, in some way, to deliberately ignore those parts of the Singapore constitution that provide particularly for clemency in circumstances where someone has offered assistance to law enforcement. And that's what our client's done," he said.
"He's a valuable witness. He would be a valuable witness against other members of a criminal conspiracy here in Australia."
Mr Lasry said Nguyen was trying to help his twin brother pay large legal bills when he was caught.
"His brother has some reasonably significant legal bills to pay and an important part of why Van did what he did was to assist his brother," he said.
Nguyen was born in a refugee camp in Thailand and came with his mother to Australia as a refugee.
"This is a young man with his life in front of him, got enormous potential, completely rehabilitated, a valuable source of information, who is about to be put to death for a crime that here in Australia we would never ever consider executing someone for," Mr Lasry said.
From here
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
Also, the fact that it was heroin. I'd suggest that's the same reason why there has hardly been as much public outcry over the bali 9 as there was for the corby case. 
it's not fair that he should be punished for his brother's sins...
