Boycott Singapore - Van's unfair sentance

[silvia saint]

great posts hoptis

Leaders call for minute of silence
By Elizabeth Colman and Steve Lewis
28-11-2005
From: The Australian


CHURCH leaders and members from both sides of Australian politics have called for the nation to stop and observe a minute's silence on Friday when convicted drug trafficker Tuong Van Nguyen is due to be hanged.
As momentum grows for Australians to stop and recognise the execution, John Howard warned Singapore yesterday that Australians' anger would linger if Nguyen was executed.

The Prime Minister's meeting with his Singapore counterpart, Lee Hsien Loong, during the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Malta was thought to be the last hope of clemency for Nguyen, 25.

The former Melbourne salesman will be executed on Friday at 6am, Singapore time, or 9am in NSW, Victoria and Tasmania, 8am in Queensland, 8.30am in South Australia, 7.30am in the Northern Territory and 6am in Western Australia.

A campaign for a minute's silence was yesterday supported by church leaders and Liberal backbencher Bruce Baird, with Attorney-General Philip Ruddock and Federal Labor deeming the gesture appropriate.

"I would certainly at the time it might happen have a moment of reflection," Mr Ruddock said.

Mr Ruddock did not believe the death penalty "in civil society ... has any place".

"I've been a fervent opponent of the death penalty all my life and all my public life," Mr Ruddock said last night.

"I don't think in a civilised society it has any place. I would be very concerned at what I regard as barbaric behaviour."

Mr Baird said he believed all Australians were "deeply disturbed" by Nguyen's story.

"I call on all Australians to observe one minute's silence at 9am on Friday, to express our compassion for this young Australian and our opposition to the imposition of this barbaric sentence," he said.

Uniting Church in Australia president Dean Drayton also supported "a public statement opposing capital punishment".

"The Uniting Church has constantly supported the move worldwide to abolish the death sentence. The issue is the value of human life, even when the person has done wrong," Dr Drayton said.

Australian Catholic Bishops Conference president Francis Carroll also supported the minute's silence.

"The community has had an extraordinary interest in this and it is not a bad idea," Archbishop Carroll said. "We are opposed to the death penalty in general. We simply don't think it is an appropriate response to crimes."

Victorian Attorney-General Rob Hulls, who flew to Singapore last week in a further bid to plead for Nguyen's life, said the silent protest would be an appropriate gesture of support.

"Keeping in mind that he has committed a crime, the Victorian Government opposes the death penalty and supports the idea of a minute's silence," Mr Hulls said.

Nguyen's lawyer, Lex Lasry QC, who will fly to Singapore on Wednesday, also urged Australians to wear a yellow ribbon on Thursday to protest the execution.

"People will be sad this week," he said. "People will just be sad that this man will be put to death in a brutal and unjust way."

The calls come as lawyers continued last-minute arguments to have Nguyen's case put to the International Court of Justice.

Professor Donald Rothwell, Challis Professor of International Law at the University of Sydney, yesterday wrote to Foreign Minister Alexander Downer on instructions from Mr Lasry.

Professor Rothwell called on Canberra to ask Singapore again to take the matter to the International Court, saying the nation had accepted the court's jurisdiction in the past.

Mr Howard said that he "specifically raised the issue of the jurisdiction of the (ICJ) and (Mr Lee) made it very clear that Singapore would not change its position".

"I did have quite a discussion with him and he was left in no doubt as to the intensity of feeling within Australia," Mr Howard said yesterday.

Mr Howard emerged grim-faced from his meeting with Mr Lee, his plea for clemency - and another by New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark - having failed.

"I can promise you I've tried in all the appropriate ways to persuade them to do otherwise and I regret that I have been unsuccessful," he said. "I'm sorry about that."

Nguyen was arrested at Changi airport three years ago while in transit from Cambodia to Australia with 400g of heroin in his possession. He has maintained he agreed to courier the drugs to pay off the debts of his heroin-addicted twin brother, Khoa.

Labor's foreign affairs spokesman, Kevin Rudd, called on the Government to "listen carefully to what the lawyers are saying about taking the action to the international court".

"If Singapore rejects the jurisdiction of the court let them do so publicly and explain why ... bringing further international pressure to bear on Singapore," Mr Rudd said.

He said he would "be pausing wherever I am in Sydney for a minute's silent observance ... if Singapore proceeds with this appalling decision to execute Van by hanging".

Opposition Leader Kim Beazley called for Mr Howard to give permission for a bipartisan delegation comprised of Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Mr Rudd to make a final appeal this week to Mr Lee.

A spokesman for Mr Downer said the appeal would be "superfluous" after several high-level representations.

Additional reporting: Samantha Maiden, John Stapleton, Padraic Murphy, James Madden

 

[silvia saint]

sorry for the multiple posts but i tried to post them all in one but it failed (stated too many replies in one thread or something - mods?)

It is God's will I must die
CARLY CRAWFORD
27nov05
thesundaymail

CONDEMNED drug courier Tuong Van Nguyen has told how he deeply regrets his crime and understands he must pay with his life.

He has written from the death row of Singapore's Changi Prison of the pain he feels at missing his mother Kim, and how he believes "little baby angels" will greet him after his execution.

In heartbreaking letters obtained by The Sunday Mail, Nguyen writes that he believes it is God's will he must die.

"I am glad and ready to go now. I believe, by then, God's purpose for me will have been achieved," he wrote to a close friend.

"I truly believe God put me here for a reason, and now that his plans for me have almost been achieved, he is preparing for me little baby angels to play with when I return to him."

That letter was written after Singapore rejected his clemency bid in late October.

Nguyen, 25, is to be hanged at dawn on Friday for trying to smuggle 396g of heroin through Singapore.

He confessed that he did it to help repay legal debts of his twin brother Khoa, who had appeared in court in Australia on drug and affray charges.

Singapore authorities will not allow Nguyen's friends, family or legal team to witness the execution, his lawyer Julian McMahon said yesterday.

With legal and diplomatic avenues for clemency virtually exhausted, Nguyen is preparing himself to die.

In a letter written to Singapore President S.R. Nathan, he describes how he has changed since his arrest in December 2002, and extends his sympathies to drug victims.

"I found myself in deep sorrow for the true victims – the families of those who suffer as a result of losing a loved one to drugs," Nguyen wrote in March. "This truth has put many things into perspective for me."

Nguyen believes his weaknesses have cost him his life, and said he blamed only himself.

"I accept responsibility for my actions," he wrote, signing the letter "Caleb" – an additional name he took when baptised.

Mr McMahon said Nguyen had written prolifically during his time in jail. "He has said that he can measure his time by his Biros – they last 16 to 18 days," Mr McMahon said.

After Nguyen was sentenced to death in March 2004, he told how he desperately missed Khoa and his mother Kim.

"The pain of missing her is by far sharper than anything physical I have ever felt," he wrote.

"With aching comprehension I come to terms with the loss I feel without Mum."

Nguyen, who is popular among other inmates, wrote of how he planned to keep the news of his looming execution from his friends inside, to spare them from anguish.

"I was gonna keep it from the guys in here so as to spare them but I made second page of the newspaper so there went my surprise," he wrote.

God and faith are common themes. In a letter to a friend, written before his clemency was rejected, he writes: "The hidden providence of God – your undying support has gone a long way in keeping my pilot light burning; especially during my darkest moments."

In Australia, Labor's foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd yesterday called on Prime Minister John Howard to raise Nguyen's case at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Malta.

The Federal Government has ruled out taking the case to the International Court of Justice, saying it has advice that Singapore did not recognise that court's jurisdiction.

But Mr Rudd said Australia should not pre-empt Singapore's response.

"Australia should not decide in advance that Singapore might reject the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice," he said.

He was speaking as he joined the Reach Out campaign devoted to saving Nguyen's life.

Bronwyn Lew and Kelly Ng, Nguyen's friends who are running the campaign, left for Singapore last night.

Nguyen's other Australian lawyer Lex Lasry, QC, is expected to leave for Singapore on Tuesday.

like mulder, i want to believe.

 

[silvia saint]

sick fucks

COFFEE, TAKEAWAY FOOD AND A FASHION SHOOT TO FILL FINAL HOURS

By CLARE MASTERS in Singapore for thesundaymail

AS THE clock hits 6pm on Thursday, Tuong Van Nguyen will press his hands against the prison's glass window and say his last goodbyes to his mother and brother.
This is the last hour that Nguyen is allowed contact with the outside world.
His lawyers and family will then be ushered out of Singapore's Changi prison, a newly built hi-tech fortress where Nguyen will spend his last days.
It is an institution stiff with regulation and ritual but tradition dictates that the rules relax in the last week of a condemned prisoner's life.
The 25-year-old, who once had another life as a sales man, will be allocated a small amount of money by the Singapore Government to spend on food and will be able to order ready-made meals or takeaway, usually shared with the other inmates.
One luxury is a giant cup of coffee in a plastic mug that he will be given in the morning and will sip slowly over the day, holding on to it long after it has gone cold.
On the last day, Nguyen's regimented routine breaks when he is escorted from his tiny cell to a room where he has his photograph professionally taken as a memento for his family.
In a bizarre prison custom reserved for all death-row prisoners, the Vietnamese refugee will slip out of the orange shorts the con demned are required to wear and the white shirt stamped with his prisoner number C856.
Newly dressed in his favourite clothes, brought to the prison by his mother, Nguyen will face the camera's flash and attempt a smile as he leans against a wall and strikes 13 different poses.
In the grief-stricken days after his broken body is returned to his family, Nguyen's mother will be given the 13 photographs as a gift from the government which killed her son.
As Nguyen treads the floor of his 3m by 2m cell, the prison of ficials will practise his execution with a sandbag of his weight.
Nguyen is allowed to read censored newspapers and watch a delayed telecast of Channel Five, Singapore's English-speaking channel.
And, as night becomes Friday morning and the clock's hands reach six o'clock, Nguyen will be taken from his cell one last time to the gallows.
Then he will fall through the trapdoor and become the first Australian citizen to lose his life behind Singapore bars.

why don't they just force her to pull the lever?

 

[swifty]

He didn't know what he was going to be forced to do until he was already overseas in Vietnam? Then they informed him that if he didn't take the heroin back, they would kill the rest of his family (which he would believe, because his family had been getting threatening phone calls, prior to his acceptance of doing the run). So by the time he got to the point where he knew what he was going to have to do, he had to make the decision between POSSIBLY risking his own life and risking the lives of his family if he backed out.

I respect much of what you say on this board plaz, but I think it just needs to be cleared up that he didn't actually get forced into smuggling the drugs.

He chose to, to raise funds to pay for his brothers legal fees, incurred by his own (for want of a better word) stupidity. There weren't any mobsters forcing him to do their dark and unjust deeds for them.

 

[MazDan]

Luddy nora...........how the hell did this get to be so big?

For the record, I believe that killing someone for the crime of smuggling drugs is a bit over the top.

Having said that, I feel the same now as I did for Corby........... you knew what you were getting into and you did it anyways.............now pay the price.

That is that countries laws and that is that.

Open and shut case..............NEXT.

 

[onetwothreefour]

^^^ regardless of ALL the other stuff surrounding this case, don't you find your ability to respond to the imminent killing of a human being with "...NEXT" as just a little sad?

 

[Charlie Brown]

I feel that there are two very strong grounds for giving Van clemency...

1. He has no prior convictions
2. He is a valuable witness in bringing down the real big players

Just the first fact, should be enough to grant him clemency..everyone deserves a second chance.

 

[keej]

I can see why the Singapore government isn't backing down; zero tolerance and absolute methods break down once you begin making exceptions. However, I hope they look at this situation and seriously consider changing their draconian legal code.

 

[keystroke]

no one travels to south east asia to bring back a "package" to Australia if it's legal, now. so come on plaz, your comments are a bit ridiculous.

no one forced this guy to smuggle heroin, it was his decision, I wasn't sure why everyone is all up in arms about saving a heroin trafficker, I'm sure Van wouldn't give two fucks about all the people the drugs killed if he did arrive here safely, so why should I care about him?

 

[Charlie Brown]

Here is an article I dug up after reading abt Julia Bohl on msn...what is very interesting is that a case off smuggling marijuna by a german national (24 ounces)- Julia Bohl was granted a penalty originally punishable from death to only 5 years...a search on google also came up with her sentence being reduced to 3 years...at the time off her release a singaporean man was executed for the same offence...

SO in light off this article is it fair to suggest that singapore has the right to say who lives or dies ? and did Howard really do all he could ? I think not..

This Government is shameless
3 June 2005
Case 1
Offender: Shanmugam Murugesu
Offence: Smuggling marijuana
Penalty: Death
Nationality: Singaporean

Case 2
Offender: Julia Bohl
Offence: Smuggling marijuana
Penalty: 3-years jail
Nationality: German

No, your eyes have not deceived you. This is the kind of Government that we have - the kind that makes you sick to the very pit of your stomach. Barely weeks after the execution of Shanmugam Murugesu, we get news that German national Julian Bohl has been released after 3 years of jail (to be released on 15 July 2005).

And how did the Government arrive at the type of sentence? According to the report below it was a result of "months of legal and diplomatic maneuvering" that "helped Bohl avoid capital punishment." What diplomatic maneuvering? Doesn't our Constitution tell a Singapore citizen like Shanmugam that he was guaranteed "equal protection under the law"?

Will the PAP Government tell Singaporeans if the report that there had been "diplomatic manuevering" has any basis?

The Government is telling us Singaporeans: "Yes, so we released Julian Bohl and killed Shanmugam. So what? We don't have to explain to you why we did it. Not happy? Okay, so what are you going to do about?"

Enough already, our dear fellow Singaporeans, enough already. Why do you remain on bended knees in the face of such injustice?

The Singapore Democrats wish Ms Bohl the very best with her new lease on life. Meanwhile, we wish Mr Shanmugam...

Singapore releases German
F.A.Z. Weekly
3 June 2005
http://www.faz.net/s/Rub9E75B460C07...FB8B622136D4F17A97~ATpl~Ecommon~Scontent.html

In the summer of 2002, Julia Bohl became a household name in Germany after the 22-year-old student faced the death penalty in Singapore for the possession and trafficking of drugs. Months of legal and diplomatic maneuvering helped Bohl avoid capital punishment, and instead she was sentenced to 5 years in jail.

Three years into her sentence, however, the Justice Ministry in the southeast Asian country announced on Friday that Bohl would be released two years early from the women's prison in Changi. The ministry did not say why she would be set free on July 15, but her lawyer said it was because of good behavior.

Bohl's case made headlines around the world in March 2002 when police seized 687 grams (24.2 ounces) of marijuana and other drugs in her apartment. Authorities also accused her of allowing three roommates to use her apartment for narcotics trafficking.

In Singapore, which is known for its extremely strict drug laws, capital punishment is mandatory when the defendant possesses more than 500 grams of marijuana. But later tests showed that the drugs seized in the case were less pure than previously thought and for legal purposes amounted to only 287 grams. This finding helped Bohl avoid the death penalty.

During the court proceedings in 2002, Bohl sought leniency from the court and apologized in a written statement before her conviction: ”I deeply regret what I've done, especially as I'm a guest in this country.” She spent most of her teenage years with her parents in Singapore and was completing an internship at Daimler Chrysler at the time of her arrest.

While serving her sentence, Bohl was regularly visited by her lawyer, embassy representatives and family members. She began a business degree at the distance-learning university in Hagen while in jail and plans on continuing her studies upon her return to Germany. The now 25-year-old is expected to immediately leave Singapore after her release.

Various media sources said a number of German publishers were interested in buying the rights to her story for a book. But representatives of the embassy said such a deal would not go over well in Singapore and could complicate the situation for future foreign nationals facing charges in the country. Singapore has executed some 100 people since 1975 for drug offenses. Only one was a westerner, a Dutchman hanged in 1994 after he was caught with 4.5 kilograms of heroin.

 

[MazDan]

^^^ regardless of ALL the other stuff surrounding this case, don't you find your ability to respond to the imminent killing of a human being with "...NEXT" as just a little sad?

lol, sorry mate, probably a bit harsh i spose but seriously I am just sick and tired of listening to it all.

Corby, now Van and next it will be the 9, it just goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on.........well you get the idea.

 

[swifty]

How much dope was Shanmugam Murugesu caught with??

 

[Mary Poppins]

if you are going to use the 'everyone has a choice line' then please at least use it universally, and apply it to your claims that drugs kill - people have a choice whether to use drugs or not, so if people are dying from using the heroin that van was bringing into australia (which btw - is a supposition at best), that is NOT him or the drugs killing them - it is them killing themselves.

and how many times do people have to call attention to the hypocrisy of any drug user citing the moral highground in regards to other people involved with the drug trade???????

to conclude

i (and i think most of the other people sharing my argument in this thread) are not commenting on whether van as a person is a decent person or thought of highly enough to warrant saving his life, and no one is denying the obvious bad choice of smuggling drugs into SE asia. People are saying that no-one should have their life taken away from them by another person, whether for murder or punishment a) because the justice system is fallibe and relies on human judgement b) because it is completely inhumane to take the life of another person, regardless of whether you believe it should be. nobody should have that right.

 

[Charlie Brown]

^^ Shanmugam Murugesu was caught with 1024grams

 

[swifty]

because it is completely inhumane to take the life of another person, regardless of whether you believe it should be. nobody should have that right.

This isn't really the thread to be making blanket statement like this in, it'll just incite more off topic debate....

 

[keystroke]

people have a choice not to go to Singapore with a bag and body full of drugs that carry a death penalty.

if I go through a red light on purpose, I get a fine in the mail. it was my choice to go through the red light and I unfortunately know the consequences and will pay the fine due to my actions.

if the penalty was death by hanging, I'd probably of stopped before reaching the traffic lights and thought "THIS IS FUCKING STUPID, its not worth dying for" and stopped.

 

[endlesseulogy]

Well M4dd0g, where were you when he was thrown in jail??? I don't see you or anyone else starting a thread or even making a comment about this case until about 4-6 weeks ago.

How do you know he wasnt?

Even if he wasnt, i dont see how this is relevant to the inhumane act of hanging somebody from a rope.

If you or anyone else was such a strong believer in his innocence/his right not to die then why not let your views be heard before the media turned this into a sympathy drive.

If people did care about this case before the media hype, would it have changed your views on this man's hanging?

I have no sympathy for people who smuggle drugs in other countries where the penalties are known. I feel sorry for anyone who gets themself into this kind of a situation, for making such a stupid decision but I don't have sympathy or empathy for them.

Im pretty sure feeling sympathy/empathy and feeling sorry for someone are the same thing.

Regardless of what I think about it being right or wrong for someone to be executed over drug smuggling, the fact of the matter is that the Singapore govt has taken the stance that anyone caught with over 15gms of Heroin on them will be given the death penalty. It is the laws of Singapore, not the laws of Australia or any other country and if you are caught in a foreign country the unfortunately then you have to pay the price of that country's laws.

I am absolutly amazed at the amount of people hiding behind this piss-weak justification. The legal side of this case has absolutly no relation to the moral issue of killing a human being in such a disgusting way.

 

[Mary Poppins]

This isn't really the thread to be making blanket statement like this in, it'll just incite more off topic debate....

well it's relevant to my post and my thoughts and arguments on the subject, and i fail to see why you're pulling me alone up for blanket statements - as you implied, the whole thread is riddled with off-topic discussion containing many of them.

it's actually inspired some good discussion, even though it is a bit off-topic, which i assume is why the moderators have left it.

 

[silvia saint]

PM rejects Nguyen tribute calls
By Sandra O'Malley
28-11-2005
From: AAP


PRIME Minister John Howard has rejected calls to stay away from an international cricket match and ruled out a national minute's silence on the day Van Tuong Nguyen is hanged.
Mr Howard believes it is his duty to attend the Prime Minister's XI cricket match on Friday, the day the Melbourne drug trafficker is due to go to the gallows in Singapore.

Friends and family are making the most of their last few days with the 25-year-old former Melbourne salesman, visiting him in Changi Prison today.

Nguyen's mother Kim, twin brother Khoa and two of his best friends from Melbourne, Bronwyn Lew and Kelly Ng, walked into the prison together wearing yellow ribbons, the symbol for the calls for clemency.

Nguyen is almost certain to hang at dawn on Friday after the failure of numerous pleas for his life to be spared, including a fifth and final attempt yesterday by Mr Howard on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Malta.

The Government has also received further legal advice that there is no basis to pursue an injunction against the execution through the International Court of Justice.

Legal experts Don Rothwell and Chris Ward have been discussing with the Government their proposal to seek an injunction in the ICJ based on a convention on drugs.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told parliament that government lawyers, as well as international legal expert James Crawford had found no basis to pursue the matter.

Nguyen was caught with almost 400 grams of heroin at Changi airport in December 2002.

Australia has made repeated representations on his behalf since his formal appeal for clemency was lost in October.

Mr Downer attempted to quash suggestions the Government had not done enough to help the young man, who says he was smuggling heroin to pay off his twin brother's legal debts.

In Parliament today, Mr Downer outlined more than 30 representations made by Government ministers and officials on behalf of Nguyen, starting four days after he was arrested in December 2002.

Mr Howard is confident Australians will understand that life needs to go on even as Nguyen is hanged and will keep a date to attend the Prime Minister's XI versus the West Indies match at Manuka Oval in Canberra on Friday.

"I have a duty as the host to go to that match," Mr Howard told ABC radio.

"I think the Australian people will understand that I didn't set the date of this man's execution.

"The idea of not attending the game or of abandoning it, I don't think it's something the Australian people would necessarily believe I should do."

The Government, too, has no plans to accede to calls for a national minute of silence to mark the hanging of Nguyen.

Liberal backbencher Bruce Baird wanted the opportunity for Australians to express their compassion for Nguyen and opposition to the "barbaric" sentence.

"It is a matter for individual Australians to decide how they will mark or reflect on such an occasion," a spokesman for Mr Howard said.

"I'm sure there are many Australian who will choose to do so in their own way."

Diggers had been up in arms at the prospect of the Government agreeing to the observation, which mostly occurs on Anzac Day and Remembrance Day.

RSL National president Bill Crews said the special moment was reserved for commemorative services honouring those who gave their life while serving their country, normally in conflict.

"It's totally inappropriate to start using the moment's silence for any other circumstance," Major General Crews said.

At the church where the Nguyen boys spent their childhood, there will be a special service at 0900 AEDT to coincide with the time of the execution.

The St Ignatius church in Melbourne's Richmond will be open early for prayer ahead of a special service that will culminate in a minute's silence at the time of the hanging.

The church bell will then toll 25 times – once for each year of Nguyen's life.

by the way, did anybody see his piss weak attempt at bowling the other day

 

[Donny Don't]

by the way, did anybody see his piss weak attempt at bowling the other day

Yes that was fucking hilarius

On topic though, why the fuck shouldn't John Howard go to the PM's XI cricket match? Just because some criminal is being punished for breaking the law of another country, and accepting the punishment he knew full well he was going to face if caught, I don't see why life here in Australia shouldn't go on, especially when the government has done all they can to try and get him off. I think society has gone completely mad on this one 8(