Posted on 11/28/2005 9:25:27 PM PST by maui_hawaii
Time is running out for 25-year-old Australian drug trafficker Nguyen Tuong Van, who is due to be executed at Singapore's Changi prison on Friday. His death sentence has sparked widespread criticism in Australia.
The Canberra government has repeatedly pleaded for clemency, as have lawyers, trade unions and church groups.
But Singapore remains unmoved, and insists the hanging will go ahead as planned.
"People have been praying for a change of heart," said Father Peter Norden, a friend of Kim Nguyen, the condemned man's mother.
"They want the Singapore government to change its heart from one of stone to a heart of flesh, as well as compassion and reason," he told the BBC.
Father Norden said Nguyen should be spared: "We believe this young man has committed a serious crime deserving of punishment, but not the loss of his life."
Nguyen was arrested carrying almost 400 grams (14 ounces) of heroin at Singapore's Changi airport in late 2002.
He said he was trying to smuggle the drugs from Cambodia to Australia to pay off his twin brother's debts.
Hardline approach
The Australian government believes Nguyen should not face the gallows because he has no previous criminal convictions. It has also argued that he could help investigations into drug syndicates if allowed to live.
But in a letter to his Australian counterpart, the Speaker of the Singapore Parliament, Abdullah Tarmugi, said there was no room for compromise.
"We have an obligation to protect the lives of those who could be ruined by the drugs Nguyen was carrying," he wrote. "He knew what he was doing and the consequences of his actions."
According to Amnesty International, about 420 people have been hanged in Singapore since 1991, mostly for drugs offences.
If these figures are correct, they would give the prosperous city-state of 4.2 million people the highest execution rate in the world, relative to its population.
At the weekend Australian Prime Minister John Howard made his fifth personal plea to the Singaporean leadership, during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Malta.
Mr Howard warned that Singapore should prepare for "lingering resentment" in Australia if the execution went ahead.
He has, however, rejected calls for boycotts of Singaporean companies, as well as trade and military sanctions with one of Australia's closest Asian allies.
"I believe John Howard has done as much as he could do," said Gerard Henderson, from the conservative think-tank The Sydney Institute.
"Listening to talk-back radio, there are some people who think that heroin smugglers deserve the death penalty, but I believe that the majority of Australians hold a different view," Mr Henderson told the BBC News website.
"They will be approaching Friday's deadline with a sense of dread," he added.
Little hope
Nguyen was born in a refugee camp in Thailand in 1980, after his mother fled from Vietnam. The family eventually settled in Melbourne.
Several last-ditch efforts to save him have been suggested, including taking Singapore to the International Court of Justice or arranging a prisoner swap, but legal experts have said none are likely to succeed.
Simon Rice, a lecturer at Macquarie University in Sydney, said that Singapore was not a signatory to international human rights covenants, and there was little hope the 25-year-old drug trafficker would be saved.
"[Nguyen's] execution is a seriously tragic reminder of how far short we are of a global commitment to human rights," Mr Rice told the BBC.
Some church leaders have called on Australians to observe a minute's silence for Nguyen on Friday, but overall opinion remains mixed.
"No-one has the right to take the life of someone else," John Karousos, a 66-year-old retiree in Sydney, told the BBC. "It doesn't matter what he's done or his mistakes. The death penalty is unacceptable."
"I have a small hope that it will be stopped at the last moment," he added optimistically.
But Gilly Parminter, a 40-year-old mother, was less sympathetic.
"Personally I think if you go into a country you have to abide by their laws, and you have to live with the consequences."
"It does seem harsh but they [the Singaporeans] can't change their minds at this late stage because it will undermine their system," she said.
The last Australian to be executed overseas was Michael McAuliffe.
The barman from Sydney was hanged in Malaysia in June 1993, after serving eight years in prison for heroin trafficking.
In 1986 two Australian citizens, Kevin Barlow and Brian Chambers, were also hanged in Malaysia after being convicted of drug smuggling.
There appears to be little hope that Nguyen Tuong Van will avoid a similar fate in Singapore this Friday.
Here's an idea.... let this be one of those "Fear Factor" stunts...
As the traffic cop once said to me, as I protested that I'd only been over-parked one minute -- "That's all it takes."
"they've simply driven it further underground"
Good idea. Give our drug peddlers a free trip to Singapore, provided they walk down those streets saying, "Got those loose joints, got that gold."
"Note to self: Don't smuggle anything through Singapore."
EXACTLY!
I heard about a Westerner, I think it was a Dutchman, who was on a direct flight from Thailand to Australia. He was smuggling some kind of drug, but figured correctly that the Thais wouldn't bother him leaving the country, and the severity of punishment in Australia was low enough to make it worth the risk.
However, the plane had mechanical difficulties and diverted to Singapore. The fellow became frantic and was pulled aside for special investigation. The drugs were found and the smuggler was soon hanging by the neck until dead.
So I guess there is a risk in that part of the world even if you are not supposed to be transiting via Singapore.
-ccm
If justices Breyer, Kennedy, and Ruth Bader-Meinhoff-Ginsburg are paying attention that will note that this is a part of foriegn law that should be adopted by the US - death to drug dealers.
In order to own a car in Singapore, to control the number of cars there, you have to obtain an ownership permit first, which can roughly equal the cost of the car itself! Hence, when Michael Fay went on his graffiti binge spray painting cars, he was damaging property worth twice the value elsewhere. Strict punishment certainly gets the attention of would-be criminals, although there still is crime in Singapore.
Sounds like you'd be perfectly comfortable in such a police state. I hope the IRS applies the same standard to you.
Certainly should be making the drug runners think twice and when they are caught they have to do the time.
Not for the kids. Especially the "glass window visitation" scene. There is also a very-tame-by-todays-standards (attempted) guy-guy stuff.
So, according to you, Sigapore has a thriving drug culture suchs as found in San Francisco or New York, just underground. And what proof do you have of this bold statement?
I would be surprised if there were any drug addicts in Singapore, let along an entire drug subculture.
I have an old friend who lived there about 7 years ago. According to him, Singapore is nearly crime and drug free.
They do. And they should.
Don't get me wrong, TM. I'm no fan of the IRS but they don't cost me nearly as much as the dope pushers and users who spread misery wherever they go -- families who have to eat on the kitchen floor so the drive-by bullets don't blow junior out of his chair -- drug-impaired lunatics burgling your home, stealing your car and killing you on the freeways -- a generation of kids with no future, selling their bodies on the street to support their addiction. That kind of society may be ok with you but it's not ok with me.
I support drug testing on the job. I support the war on drugs and want to see it stepped up considerably. And I salute Singapore for its commitment to a safe, clean, drug-free society.
Uh, not really. They still have drugs in Singapore but it has been pushed just a little further underground. There are plenty in the Singapore government who buy in that market, and so a little trade is allowed if it is kept low profile and you have some connections. It is the way these things have always worked in countries that severely restrict access to a desired product.
There are interesting studies in countries (e.g. the UK a century or two ago) where severe penalties are exacted for even relatively minor crimes. What tends to happen is not that the level of the crime is reduced but that people stop reporting crime and exact their own informal justice because they believe the official justice system to be inordinately or unacceptably harsh. This effectively disempowers the government to determine justice. If society does not believe the official justice system is fair, they won't use it.
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