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Geez, give some people enough rope... |
Posted on 12/02/2005 3:55:18 PM PST by naturalman1975
HEROIN smuggler Nguyen Tuong Van sent a message to young Australians to stay away from drugs before he paid the ultimate price for his crime yesterday.
Nguyen was hanged at dawn in Singapore's Changi Prison as family and friends wept nearby, bells tolled at prayer services across Australia and an international storm gathered over capital punishment.
In a hand-written letter to be read at his funeral in Melbourne on Wednesday, it is believed Nguyen repents for the pain he has caused, and warns about the evil of drugs.
Father Peter Hansen, who will lead a requiem mass for Nguyen at St Patrick's Cathedral, said he believed Nguyen wrote a statement to be read to the congregation.
Lawyer Julian McMahon said Nguyen, 25, also wrote to several prominent people and a political leader in his final days.
Asked if he penned warnings against drug use, Mr McMahon said: "I'd have no doubt there would be such a letter. That would be in keeping with the sorts of letters he's been writing."
A courageous Nguyen prayed in the last minutes of his life and embraced a Singapore prison official as he was led to the gallows.
But there was little dignity when his body, wrapped in a white sheet, was picked up by a local undertaker then carried on a stretcher to a funeral parlour in full public view.
Nguyen's family claimed his body within hours and will fly it home tonight for the funeral service in Melbourne he helped plan.
His twin brother, Khoa, and several of his friends were as close as possible when he died, gathering in a nearby jail building as a hangman slipped a noose over the condemned man's head.
Nguyen's mother Kim, who was able to touch her son's face and hair during her last visit on Thursday, grieved with friends and relatives at a nearby chapel as the hour of execution passed.
Inside, on death row, Nguyen was joined in prayer in the last minutes of his life by a nun and a pastoral worker.
"I know that he died the courageous death that he planned for himself and died as an optimistic young man, making us all extremely proud of him," lawyer Lex Lasry said.
"I gather he embraced the superintendent as he walked to the point where he was executed and that's exactly the sort of thing I would expect from him."
The hours before the hanging were torture for Mrs Nguyen.
Later, when told how he died, "she was distraught to start with and then some time after six (o'clock) calm started to settle over her", Mr Lasry said.
When Khoa left the prison he embraced a prison official before leaving in a taxi.
Khoa, whose legal debts Nguyen said he had been trying to repay by smuggling heroin, appeared distressed.
"He's in a most tragic situation. But hopefully today for him is the start of ... the rest of his life." Mr Lasry said.
The execution stirred opposition to the death penalty in Singapore, with the newly formed Singapore Anti-Death Penalty Committee lighting candles outside the prison gates.
The candles rested on coloured pages with inscriptions to Nguyen from supporters.
One read: "Dear Van. We're all under the same skies. But some choose to be less human. You may be gone, but we'll continue the fight."
Among the crowd was the mother of the last man hanged in Singapore.
Drug smuggler Shanmugan Murugesu, who was executed in May, had befriended Nguyen and described him to his mother as a "baby among hardened criminals".
Letchumi Murugesu wept yesterday, telling how she had been banned from touching her son, and describing the process as torture.
A little over an hour after Nguyen's execution, Singapore issued a statement confirming his death. It repeated the point that his crime was to smuggle enough heroin to supply 26,000 hits to addicts.
It later emerged that Singapore's veteran chief executioner, Darshan Singh, was not called on to hang Nguyen.
"Only God knows" who had replaced him, Singh said.
Hours after the execution, Mrs Nguyen and Khoa held a private Mass at the Marymount Chapel inside the grounds of Singapore's Good Shepherd Convent, where they have been staying for the past week.
Mr Lasry was optimistic the case might bring about change in Singapore. "There's more feeling than people realise in this country about this sort of thing."
"Don't smoke. That's it. Just don't smoke." -- Yul Brynner
I'm not sure I have a problem with this. He sold it, I wonder how many died from "bad" stuff or an overdose.
Don't try to smuggle drugs into Singapore.
or through, over, around, near, in proximity of, etc.
they have a pretty consistent track record, i'm not sure why people are stupid enough to risk it.
(i also agree that the punishment does not fit the crime, but it ain't my country)
Or Malaysia either!
I'm an old guy. I graduated in 1955 from the third largest three-year high school in the country. My graduating class was 945. I had no idea about drugs in those days. This execution made me think about the long-haired dope smoking anti war protesters who also popularized drug usage. Look what they gave us.
'Don't use drugs' is hanged man's plea
----Whew..Thank goodness he warned people. I was getting ready to use some!
It repeated the point that his crime was to smuggle enough heroin to supply 26,000 hits to addicts.
OR, 13,000 KILLER hits.
It's so easy to overlook the fact that by smuggeling this
drug, as many as perhaps 10,000 people could have been yoked
into chemical slavery, criminality, and prostitution.
It is good that he was hung, we should have those policies
HERE.
LOL I see your point.
----It's just like anything else having to do with the war on drugs. A crock of S**T. My daughter was doing a student teacher class the other day at a high school and the cops were there taking a 13 year old out of the class because his locker had crack cocaine in it he was selling. They think they have a handle on it but all thats changed is the drug king pins have little kids selling it.
I bet he won't try smuggling drugs again.
Yea but that was pretty tricky; I wouldn't think a hanged man would be able to do much of anything.
And those who MADE poor choices, who then go on to addict
others, who then make available heroin which enslaves and
kills others through over dose, should get "treatment"
They have the "treatment" in Singapore.
Its nice to know you approve of the 13 year old selling drugs.
They cant get them all , thats true, but standing by and watching it get worse isnt the answer.
If you'd asked me judging by the title, and before reading the article, I was thinking that when he was saying not to use drugs, that it was to not use drugs on hin so he could relish his execution while straight. LOL
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Geez, give some people enough rope... |
Also, I'd like to congratulate Singapore for its tough stand against drugs and for the public hanging of an individual smuggling the stuff into the country. Hello, U.S. authorities?
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