Posted on 12/01/2005 12:35:13 AM PST by nickcarraway
THE lead lawyer for condemned trafficker Van Tuong Nguyen today stepped up the pressure for the Melbourne man to be allowed to hug his mother before his Friday execution in Singapore.
Lex Lasry QC also launched a blistering attack on city-state's use of the mandatory death penalty regime as he arrived for a final meeting with Nguyen.
"It shouldn't require a legal loophole for Nguyen to allowed to touch his mother before he goes to the gallows," Mr Lasry said after flying in at 10.30pm local time, (1am AEDT).
"It should simply be a matter of ordinary humanity that Singapore authorities surely must see that they have to be allowed to touch each other," he said.
Mr Lasry was speaking at Changi Airport, the same hub where Nguyen was arrested in December 2002 carrying almost 400 grams of heroin.
After all appeals for clemency from Canberra have failed, Nguyen faces the gallows at dawn on Friday.
Advertisement: Nguyen, 25, has received a stream of visitors from close family and friends over the past two weeks. Those visits will continue today and tomorrow.
But the condemned man and his mother Kim Nguyen and others have been separated by a thick pane of glass in the visiting room, allowing no physical contact.
There has been no word yet from the Singapore authorities whether the restriction will be relaxed in the remaining time before the dawn hanging on Friday.
The Australian Government has through the Singapore High Commission made an urgent formal request for what is known as a contact visit.
No response has yet been received.
For supporters of clemency for Nguyen, the issue of whether he is allowed to touch his mother before he is put to death has been an extra reason for growing frustration.
"It's an inhumane thing to bar contact," Mr Lasry said.
In stark and forceful language, Mr Lasry also bitterly criticised Singapore's use of the mandatory death penalty, suggesting that it would stir controversy beyond Nguyen's death.
"It's time (for Singapore) to change. You can't hang people under a mandatory death regime," Mr Lasry said.
"Singapore is going to have to change this regime. It simply is not acceptable for a first-world country," he said.
"This argument will not end with our client's death, if that is what happens," he said.
And in comments that could rile the Singapore authorities, the QC said: "It is not easy for disagreement to occur in this country."
"What dissent on capital punishment there is locally doesn't get a lot of publicity," Mr Lasry said.
Singapore's main print and broadcast media is firmly tied to the ruling People's Action Party government, which has run the country for 40 years.
The local media is not free in the mainstream western sense, but supports what officials call nation-building.
While there have been immense media interest in Australia in Nguyen's fate, local papers here have been restrained in their coverage.
Some reports have been either late or extremely cursory.
As the furore over Nguyen's imminent hanging has mounted, Singapore ministers have stuck to the line that Nguyen's punishment fits his crime.
They also argue that the use of mandatory capital punishment helps to keep illegal drugs out of the country.
Mr Lasry held out little hope for his client, who appears to have reconciled himself to his imminent death.
"It's got to be something out of the box, for sure," Mr Lasry said, when asked if it would take a miracle to save Nguyen now.
Mr Lasry is expected to visit Changi Prison later today although he said that his appointment had not yet been confirmed.
One of Nguyen's friends who visited yesterday, Kelly Ng, said he was in good spirits and has even made plans for his funeral, in part to save his friends the trouble.
"He just mentioned the songs he wants played (at the funeral)," said Ms Ng.
Singapore hangman Darshan Singh suggested Nguyen could still be spared.
"Maybe they may say at the eleventh hour ... they may give him a life sentence; it's still possible," the 74-year-old said.
Mr Singh has carried out hundreds of executions in a career spanning 48 years and said if he was called on to hang Nguyen, he would be efficient.
A Sikh who converted to Islam, Mr Singh said execution was a means of "complete rehabilitation".
"I'm changing their character to a different one because I believe in rebirth and they will be better men next time."
01-12-2005
CONDEMNED Australian drug trafficker Van Tuong Nguyen and his mother will be allowed to hold hands, but not to hug, before he is put to death.
Singaporean officials today said they would grant Kim Nguyen an exemption from a total ban on physical contact with death row inmates. Kim Nguyen had asked to be able to hug her son one final time before he is executed at dawn tomorrow morning.
But in a statement, the Singapore Government said it would allow only limited physical contact between the condemned man and his mother and brother Khoa.
"Mr Nguyen will be allowed to hold hands with his mother and brother," the statement from Singapore's ministry of foreign affairs said.
It said it had agreed to the request for contact after a personal appeal by Prime Minister John Howard to his Singaporean counterpart, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, at the recent Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Malta.
Nguyen's two Australian lawyers, Lex Lasry QC and Julian McMahon, met their client today and described him as being at peace.
"We've just been with a young man who is in a beautiful state of mind," an emotional Mr McMahon said after emerging from Changi Prison where Nguyen will hang tomorrow.
"He is completely rehabilitated, completely reformed, completely focused on doing what is good and now they are going to kill him."
Mr Lasry also spoke of Nguyen's calm and dignity in the face of his own death.
"We've just had a beautiful last visit. It was a great visit and quite uplifting," Mr Lasry said, apparently struggling to maintain his own composure.
Nguyen also spent time this morning with Kelly Ng, one of his best friends, and with his twin brother Khoa.
At 6am Singapore time tomorrow he will be hanged.
Singapore's Prime Minister yesterday quashed any inkling of hope that Nguyen's life could be saved.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong made it clear the city-state would go ahead with the hanging.
Mr Lee, currently in Europe, told French newspaper Le Figaro that the death penalty "is necessary and is part of the criminal justice system".
"We also think that drug trafficking is a crime that deserves the death penalty," he said.
"The evil inflicted on thousands of people with drug trafficking demands that we must tackle the source by punishing the traffickers rather than trying to pick up the pieces afterwards."
Private groups and Opposition politicians in Australia have called for sanctions against Singapore but Prime Minister John Howard has adopted a more restrained approach and sought clemency for Nguyen.
Nguyen was arrested at Changi airport three years ago carrying almost 400g of heroin.
“The evil inflicted on thousands of people with drug trafficking demands that we must tackle the source by punishing the traffickers rather than trying to pick up the pieces afterwards.”
Logical. Not very nice, but logical.
I assume it is safe to say he is not a liberal-tarian?
That is safe to say. Loong will probably tie the noose himself.
Wanna bet?
Hanging is the legally prescribed penalty for smuggling drugs in Singapore. Ong Tuong understood this. His act was a calculated risk deemed worth it because of the potential profit. He rolled the dice himself and he lost.
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