Oct. 24
AUSTRALIA/SINGAPORE:
Save my son: Kim Nguyen, mother of convicted drug trafficer Tuong
Nguyen--Final plea to stop execution
The mother of a young Melbourne man on death row in Singapore has pleaded
for her son's life to be spared.
Kim Nguyen broke her silence yesterday with an impassioned appeal for help
to stop her son's hanging.
Tuong Van Nguyen, 25, will be executed within 4 weeks on drug smuggling
charges unless a last-minute reprieve is granted.
A devastated Mrs Nguyen said she refused to give up hope.
"We keep going because I love him very much," she said, clutching a tissue
to her chest.
"He is my heart. If something happens to my son, my heart will be
stopped."
Legal avenues to save Nguyen were exhausted last week when Singapore's
President S.R. Nathan refused to grant him clemency.
Nguyen received the mandatory death sentence after pleading guilty to
trying to smuggle 396.2g of heroin out of Singapore in December 2002.
A former Vietnamese refugee, Nguyen had no previous criminal record and
was trying to pay off debts owed by his twin brother to a Sydney drug
syndicate.
Nguyen's Melbourne legal team, led by Lex Lasry, QC, and Julian McMahon,
are now pinning their hopes on a ground swell of public support to save
Nguyen.
"We propose to put into the public media every possible argument that we
can as to why this young man should be spared the death penalty," Mr Lasry
said.
Mr Lasry said a focus of the campaign would be Nguyen's co-operation with
Singaporean and Australian police in a bid to bring down those behind the
smuggling plot.
He said Singapore's constitution allowed clemency to be granted to those
who assisted authorities.
"To ignore that, as it appears the Singapore Government has done, does, in
our view represent a very bad error of judgment," he said.
But Mr Lasry conceded he was not aware of the Singapore Government
changing its mind after rejecting an appeal for clemency.
He said also he hoped the public would back Nguyen because of his total
transformation during his time in Singapore's Changi Prison, including
finding religion, and the barbarity of hanging.
"It's a degrading, disgraceful, horrible way for a person to be executed,"
he said.
Mr Lasry said he was confident of winning public support.
"I think people, thinking people in Australia, will understand that his
life is just as valuable as any other," he said.
He appealed to the Australian Government to continue its diplomatic
efforts despite Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer saying little
more could be done.
Nguyen's supporters hope the death sentence will be commuted to life in
prison or a 30-year sentence with a 20-year minimum.
Mrs Nguyen, who must be given 2 week's notice of her son's execution date,
hopes her son will be allowed to serve his sentence in Australia.
(source: Herald Sun)
