speedygonzales
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A 25-YEAR-OLD Melbourne man who said he smuggled heroin in an effort to pay off his twin brother's debts will within days become the first Australian to be executed in Singapore after a final presidential appeal for clemency was rejected.
Nguyen Tuong Van is expected to be hanged within 10 days, despite pleas for mercy to Singaporean President Sellapan Rama Nathan by John Howard, Governor-General Michael Jeffery and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.
Nguyen was sentenced to death last year. He had been caught with 396g of heroin strapped to his back and in his hand luggage while in transit at Singapore's Changi airport in December 2002, on his way from Cambodia to Melbourne.
Nguyen's mother, Kim, fled from Vietnam in a boat in 1980 and gave birth to her twin sons in a transit camp in Malaysia before being accepted into Australia four months later.
Mr Downer confirmed yesterday the Australian Government's pleas for clemency had been rejected by Singapore, which has executed 400 drug-smugglers in the past decade.
"We are very sad this has happened," Mr Downer said. "We have done our best, we have done everything we can to save his life. He will be hanged as a result of this decision."
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The Prime Minister said last night that the Government had done all it could to save Nguyen from the gallows. "I'm sorry, but this is a sovereign foreign country enforcing to the full the laws plainly known and understood throughout the region," he said.
But Labor foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said there was still a hope if the Singaporean cabinet were to ask the President to reconsider.
"We appeal to the individual members of the Singaporean cabinet to find it in their hearts to save this man's life," he said.
But Mr Downer said there was no chance of Singapore reconsidering its decision. "There is no further appeal. This is the end of the processes of appeal," he said.
Nguyen will be the fourth Australian executed on drugs charges by an Asian country, and the first since Queenslander Michael McAuliffe was hanged in Malaysia in 1993.
Brian Chambers and Kevin Barlow were also hanged in Malaysia in 1986 after being convicted of drug offences.
Two Australians - Mai Cong Thanh, 46, and Nguyen Van Chinh, 45 - have been sentenced to death in Vietnam after being found guilty of smuggling heroin. They are still on death row.
Nguyen's Melbourne-based lawyer, Lex Lasry QC, said he was "appalled" by the news.
Along with Nguyen's other Australian lawyers, Julian McMahon and Joseph Theseira, Mr Lasry said death by hanging was "grossly out of proportion to the crime committed".
"The only people who will take comfort from this result will be those who exploited Van for their own purposes to profit from drug-trafficking, and who now know that with the death of our client their criminal conspiracy will go unpunished," the lawyers said in a joint statement.
"The news that the Singapore Government intends to hang our client, Van Nguyen, is devastating for him, his family and friends, and for anyone who values humane treatment of their fellow human beings."
Van said he carried the drugs to raise $30,000 to pay off legal debts his brother Khoa - also a convicted heroin trafficker - had racked up in defending drug charges in court.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,16996461-401,00.html
Nguyen Tuong Van is expected to be hanged within 10 days, despite pleas for mercy to Singaporean President Sellapan Rama Nathan by John Howard, Governor-General Michael Jeffery and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.
Nguyen was sentenced to death last year. He had been caught with 396g of heroin strapped to his back and in his hand luggage while in transit at Singapore's Changi airport in December 2002, on his way from Cambodia to Melbourne.
Nguyen's mother, Kim, fled from Vietnam in a boat in 1980 and gave birth to her twin sons in a transit camp in Malaysia before being accepted into Australia four months later.
Mr Downer confirmed yesterday the Australian Government's pleas for clemency had been rejected by Singapore, which has executed 400 drug-smugglers in the past decade.
"We are very sad this has happened," Mr Downer said. "We have done our best, we have done everything we can to save his life. He will be hanged as a result of this decision."
Advertisement:
The Prime Minister said last night that the Government had done all it could to save Nguyen from the gallows. "I'm sorry, but this is a sovereign foreign country enforcing to the full the laws plainly known and understood throughout the region," he said.
But Labor foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said there was still a hope if the Singaporean cabinet were to ask the President to reconsider.
"We appeal to the individual members of the Singaporean cabinet to find it in their hearts to save this man's life," he said.
But Mr Downer said there was no chance of Singapore reconsidering its decision. "There is no further appeal. This is the end of the processes of appeal," he said.
Nguyen will be the fourth Australian executed on drugs charges by an Asian country, and the first since Queenslander Michael McAuliffe was hanged in Malaysia in 1993.
Brian Chambers and Kevin Barlow were also hanged in Malaysia in 1986 after being convicted of drug offences.
Two Australians - Mai Cong Thanh, 46, and Nguyen Van Chinh, 45 - have been sentenced to death in Vietnam after being found guilty of smuggling heroin. They are still on death row.
Nguyen's Melbourne-based lawyer, Lex Lasry QC, said he was "appalled" by the news.
Along with Nguyen's other Australian lawyers, Julian McMahon and Joseph Theseira, Mr Lasry said death by hanging was "grossly out of proportion to the crime committed".
"The only people who will take comfort from this result will be those who exploited Van for their own purposes to profit from drug-trafficking, and who now know that with the death of our client their criminal conspiracy will go unpunished," the lawyers said in a joint statement.
"The news that the Singapore Government intends to hang our client, Van Nguyen, is devastating for him, his family and friends, and for anyone who values humane treatment of their fellow human beings."
Van said he carried the drugs to raise $30,000 to pay off legal debts his brother Khoa - also a convicted heroin trafficker - had racked up in defending drug charges in court.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,16996461-401,00.html
