[Deathpenalty]death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

July 26


SINGAPORE:

Singapore death penalty challenged


The death penalty in Singapore will be challenged today as lawyers begin a
court appeal to save an Australian man from the gallows.

Melbourne sales executive Nguyen Tuong Van, 23, has been on death row in
Changi prison since March when a Singapore court found him guilty of
smuggling almost 400g of heroin from Cambodia via Singapore.

Nguyen's Australian barrister, Lex Lasry, QC, said the appeal would
question the constitutionality of the death penalty there.

Singapore made the death penalty mandatory for drug traffickers and
murderers in 1975.

Lasry said the appeal, in Singapore's High Court, would also question
evidence given in Nguyen's original trial.

If the appeal is lost, Mr Lasry will lodge a submission for clemency with
Singapore's President S. R. Nathan.

(source: The (New Zealand) Herald)