From smh.com.au
November 17, 2005 - 7:30PM
Kim Nguyen now knows exactly when her son will die.
On December 2, at dawn, Melbourne man Nguyen Tuong Van will be led from his cell on death row in Singapore's Changi prison to a nearby gallows, where a hangman will be waiting.
Minutes later he will be dead, executed despite repeated pleas for clemency from supporters, human rights organisations, the Australian government and two popes.
Prime Minister John Howard appealed directly to his Singapore counterpart again today on behalf of the convicted drug trafficker, but was again rebuffed.
Ms Nguyen was told of her 25-year-old son's execution date in a letter which arrived at her Melbourne home at 2pm (AEDT) today.
"By letter, by registered letter delivered to her house ... it's incredibly impersonal," said Nguyen's Melbourne-based lawyer Lex Lasry, QC.
Ms Nguyen will now prepare to leave for Singapore, where she will be permitted to visit her son in the three days before his execution.
It is not know whether Nguyen, sentenced to hang after being caught with 396 grams of heroin strapped to his body and in his hand luggage at Changi airport in 2002, has been told of his execution date.
Mr Howard, speaking after a meeting in South Korea with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, spoke sadly of seeing Ms Nguyen in his Sydney electorate office on Tuesday.
He described her plight as "too pitiful for words"."Needless to say she is in a state of great anguish," Mr Howard said of Ms Nguyen, who fled Vietnam in 1980 and who gave birth to twin sons in a transit camp in Malaysia. "I feel desperately sorry for her."
Nguyen claimed he was trafficking heroin to help pay off legal fees incurred by his twin brother Khoa.
Mr Howard's plea to the Singapore PM fell on deaf ears, with Mr Lee saying after their meeting: "I explained (to Mr Howard) why we were unable to accede to his request even though we understood where he came from."
But Mr Howard was also clearly angry Mr Lee had not told him at their face to face meeting of the execution date, which he ultimately learned from Mr Lasry.
"I'm very disappointed I was not told, very disappointed," Mr Howard said later.
Mr Lasry said he was also angry and frustrated that Singapore had decided to go ahead with the execution.
"I must say my overwhelming emotion at the moment, apart from being distressed by this, I'm angry.
"I'm angry that they (Singapore government) do such a thing in such an impersonal way and I'm angry that they won't see the injustice."
Mr Lasry and fellow lawyer Julian McMahon will fly to Singapore tomorrow and hopes to see Nguyen on Saturday.
Victorian Attorney General Rob Hulls said he too was disappointed at the news, and said Nguyen had shown "significant remorse".
"He even agreed to testify against those on whose behalf he was transporting the contraband," Mr Hulls said.
Both Pope John Paul II and his successor Pope Benedict XVI had made direct but unsuccessful appeals to Singapore to spare Nguyen's life, Melbourne Catholic priest Father Peter Norden said today.
"For two Popes to intervene, it's making it very clear that many people in this world are opposed to taking a life," he told AAP.
"We're deeply disappointed by this, but it's not finished yet," he said.
In Singapore, news of the execution date was met with resignation by human rights activists.
"I am not surprised. I just feel sad," said anti-death penalty campaigner and lawyer, M Ravi.
Nguyen will be the first Australian executed in Singapore, and the first Australian sentenced to death by an Asian country on drug charges since Queenslander Michael McAuliffe was hanged in Malaysia in 1993.
AAP
24 comments:
I can see why Mr Lasry is a QC. He has a particular expertise in exaggerating a grievance. The smallest issue is amplified. I guess he expected the Singapore High Commissioner to Canberra to come calling on Ms Nguyen to tell her the date...
shit.
I thought execution takes place just 3 weeks after clemency is rejected, as a local lawyer said. Is an exception being made here because the man is a foreigner?
(1st) Anonymous, I'm sure Nguyen Tuong Van's mother doesn't consider it to be the "smallest issue". The fact that the Singapore government relied on an employee of Australia Post to deliver the letter informing her of the date and time of her son's death demonstrates callousness beyond belief.
Like Ms Nguyen was not expecting to receive the news. That's pretty much stretching it, but in keeping with the exaggerations which I'm sure will mount as each hour passes for the next two weeks.
PS: What I would consider callousness is 26,000 doses of heroin for drug-abusers. Now, that ain't no exaggeration.
Aust govt felt disappointed with our "heartless" men? Not too late to know.....
I can understand why they send the death notice through mail - they're going to MURDER her son. Are you expecting Singapore High Commissioner in Australia knock on Ms Nguyen's door and say....
"Sorry Ms Nguyen, on behalf of my government I would like to inform you that your son will be executed on 2 December in Changi prison. He'll be hanged til death at 6am sharp on the designated date. According to our the experience from our executioner, during the execution your son's neck will be snapped and left in coma until his ultimate death. However if anything goes wrong, your son will probably suffer a prolonged death by strangulation..... And finally, please remember make the necessary funeral arrangements. If you are unable to do so, cremation will be carried out by Singapore government."
Murders, include STATE MURDERERS, are all cowards, we all know that.
Shame on you, Singaporean government, PAP and Lee's family. Fxxk off from the earth, please.
oh boohoo hongkonger,
Perhaps the Aussie government should have started their evangalistical campaign during the 3 decades this law was in place, not when an Australian is about to hang. Like when they signed the FTA or everytime the Singaporean PM or SM or MM visits down under.
This is so half-hearted.
it is a sad day for humanity.
yeah sure, 26 000 doses of heroin will be off the streets and it is all because of ONE MAN, Nguyen. Hmm, lets see... if 26 000 doses of heroin got through to Australia, this ups the number of addicts being addicted for x number of days longer, unemployment goes up, more people go on the dole, crime rate increases, maybe even stirs up the economy a little. yeah, its no good. lets just hang Nguyen for all this.
But what i dont get is that he was in transit. The drugs were bound fo Australia and would never have been imported for use in Singapore.
So Singapore is actually doing us a good deed ??
Funny thing is, when Nguyen goes to the gallows on Dec 2, most middle-class Singaporeans will just rouse from their tiny island state/world-class wannabe education hub/distinctive global city for the arts/foreigner-friendly/sophisticated, developed nation and hop onto a super efficient MRT into the air conditioned offices in this air conditioned nation. Sad thing is, most will not even know or will have read who or what Nguyen was all about. Heroin? What's that? You mean that Mediacorp Artiste in that Chinese drama?
Nice one Singapore. You are definitely on the way to becoming a world class, global, first class nation. Good luck.
I am so angry. This is not justice in any shape or form. What good will come from taking this young man's life? Capital punishment is supposedly in place to protect Singaporeans. But what does it do for Singaporeans to know that they live in such a violently unforgiving state? What do we do with the compassion that stories like Shanmugan Murugesu's and Nguyen's evoke? It's almost too painful to care. What's the point of Sharity Elephants and what ever else when there are people in society that we brand as not even worthy of life? People need to be nutured, not broken. Look at the state the world is in. Violence is clearly not getting us anywhere.
Why cooperate with such "unkind and heartless" leaders? Simply withdraw your proposal of opening the Aust university in Singapore.
Is there going to be another virgil event organised before 2 Dec? Perhaps we can invite the Nyugen Van's mother and Lex Lasry QC to attend too...at least Singaporeans who are against his hanging can show up as a sign of support for them and protest against the death penalty!
Yes, most Singaporeans would not care an iota about pedellers of death, simply because what goes around by these merchants of death eventually comes around. The surveys show that only too well, with the overwhelming majority of Singaporeans supporting capital punishment for those who don't give even the slightest thought about the thousands of lives they will destroy by their trade in narcotics. But I'm sure we will get further spectacles of Aussie grandstanding before this very minor episode in Singapore's legal history is over. The activists are all waiting to capitalise on this event so as to put their own spin on it. And of course the Aussie media will be out in force to embellish every little angle to milk this human interest story dry. But what will really get their backs up is despite all the kerfuffle they contrive to create, the Singaporean state and the vast majority of its citizens will remain stoic and unflappable. Dramatics simply don't cut any ice...
"Dramatics simply don't cut any ice..." No doubt but emotional support for anyone whose loved one is dying or has died is absolutely important.
The QUESTION remains: Where is the drug-addicted twin brother, Khoa? His continued absence, especially at this time, is very telling indeed. It is increasingly clear that the full story is not out, and the fact that the media in Australia has not asked the hard questions over his absence (apart from claiming he is in "despair" and in "hiding") refelcts as much on their willingness to get to the truth as it does anything else.
To ANon above: what kind of hard questions are you babbling about? Questions on the meaning of life? What is the universe made of? Is there a god?
The key here is a murder will take place on Dec 2 and all S'poreans who elected this barbaric regime are accomplices to the crime.
Seems there isn't even a squeak from the large Aussie expat community and enormous biz interests in S'pore on this case... On 2 Dec as they awake from their slumber it will just be another day for them as they look forward to the weekend... Their priority will of course be early Christmas shopping. :)
Aussies live it up (and down) in SE Asia. Only when their personal well-being is adversely affected do they then send an SOS back home, and we then must go thru' this same rigmarole, time and time again
Anon, you have been rabbiting on about the missing brother. Of what relevance is it if his brother's debt is drug related?! What truth is there to uncover? How will it change the fact that a young man is going to be killed for doing something very stupid out of desperation?
And to Anon with the stupid Christmas shopping theory, how dare you make assumptions about what other people feel about this? And how dare you tack a smiley onto your ignoble comment as though the notion of people caring more about shopping than a young man's hanging is an amusing thing to entertain.
An Aussie newspaper's attempts to instigate a boycott of Singapore businesses is getting a mixed reception. The activists should try harder and find more computers to do their multiple online voting for the boycott. :) Actually the thing that has raised eyebrows about this affair is not that the vast majority of Singaporeans have not given a toss about it, but that quite a few Aussies have said that the trafficker's date with destiny could not come sooner as they feel that their countrymen have already disgraced themselves far too much abroad. In this debate it is best that we leave the Aussies to slug it out on their own. One brother did not learn from the error of his other brother and thus secured his own fate. That's a minor detail that the Oz media finds rather inconvenient in mentioning. Again, where is that beloved other brother? (As the plane approaches Changi, one final reminder: "Please note the warning on the immigration form about the
severe penalties for drug offences in Singapore.")
Yeah, you heard? We're really much too busy celebrating Australia's entry into the World Cup Finals to bother about drugs... hey no chance you got a six-pack in yer fridge huh?
somebody, you are right, he did "something very stupid". When told he would be a "mule", it seems he took it literally and strapped the drugs on his back. (That set off the metal detector at the departure gate.) Go figure! :)
if he was WHITE, would the call for the so-called boycott of Singaporean services will be in effect?
i hardly think so.
in todays society, alot are expressing their feelings so as to show their support for the weak.
i for one am AGAINST this treatment by my so called 'democratic' govt.
aussies, before u launch an attack on Singaporeans, look at yourselves.
u defend that boy with pride and ethics, but u've destroyed many NATIVE australian lives.
care to discuss this issue?
lets not get ahead of ourselves.
before u ask of others to do the right thing, make sure u're doing it well and good.
else, sit back and enjoy the fact you lot got into the world cup in germany
to anon 1:25 AM above, wat the hell r u talking about? if he was white, all the more the aussies would call for a boycott of s'porean services...u got no brains or wat?
so now u're against this treatment by our govt but u're against the aussies as well? make up ur mind, which side r u on?
and stop all these exaggerations about drugs, smoking is more prevalent and equally harmful, and if drug addicts choose to start taking drugs in the first place it's their own freaking business if they die! DUH!! wat the hell has it got to do with the trafficker??
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