Oct. 27
SINGAPORE:
Amnesty joins bid to halt execution
Amnesty International has launched a worldwide campaign to save an
Australian heroin smuggler condemned to hang in Singapore.
The international human rights watchdog has asked its global network of
more than 1.8 million activists in 140 countries to lobby on behalf of
Nguyen Tuong Van.
Nguyen, 25, faces execution in Singapore after last week losing a clemency
appeal over his drug smuggling conviction.
The former Melbourne salesman was caught with 396g of heroin strapped to
his body and in his hand luggage at Changi airport in 2002.
"Amnesty International has mobilised its emergency response network of
thousands of people worldwide, who intervene in situations where there is
an immediate threat to life, to appeal to the Singaporean authorities to
show compassion and grant clemency to Van Tuong Nguyen," Amnesty Australia
spokesman Tim Goodwin said yesterday.
Members are being urged to write to Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien
Loong, Foreign Minister Shanmugam Jayakumar, Attorney-General Chan Sek
Keong, and Canberra-based Singapore High Commissioner Joseph Koh.
Amnesty International earlier this week said it was appalled by the
decision to reject clemency.
It said Singapore had the highest per capita execution rate in the world,
having executed more than 420 people since 1991, the majority for drug
trafficking.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said he had spoken to
Singapores high commissioner and written to its Foreign Minister, urging
them to spare Nguyen.
(source: The Border Mail)
