Singapore hangs Australian drug smuggler (AP) Updated: 2005-12-02 08:28
Singapore executed a 25-year-old Australian on Friday for drug trafficking,
despite numerous appeals from the Australian government and hours after the
condemned man had a "beautiful last visit" with his family.
Nguyen Tuong Van was hanged before dawn as a dozen friends and supporters,
dressed in black, kept an overnight vigil outside the maximum-security prison.
His twin brother, Nguyen Khoa, was dressed in white.
People hold a flower and weep for condemned
drug smuggler Nguyen Tuong Van during a vigil in Sydney, Australia,
Friday, Dec. 2, 2005, as they gather at the hour of his execution.
[AP] | Vigils were also held in cities around Australia, with bells and gongs
sounding 25 times at the hour of his execution.
"The sentence was carried out this morning at Changi Prison," the Home
Affairs Ministry said in an e-mailed statement.
Nguyen received a mandatory death sentence after he was caught in 2002 at
Singapore's airport on his way home to Melbourne carrying about 14 ounces of
heroin.
Australian Lawyer Julian McMahon, center, sits
in a taxi with Kelly Ng, left, and Browyn Lew, right, friends of Nguyen
Tuong Van, as they arrive at the Singapore Changi Prison to support Ngyuen
just about an hour before his execution, Friday Dec. 2, 2005 in Singapore.
[AP] | Singapore has executed more than 100 people
for drug-related offenses since 1999, saying its tough laws and penalties are an
effective deterrent against a crime that ruins lives. By contrast, Australia
scrapped the death penalty in 1973 and hanged its last criminal in 1967.
While Australian leaders lashed out at the death sentence as "barbaric" and
pleaded for clemency for Nguyen, Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had
ruled out a reprieve.
"We have stated our position clearly," Lee told reporters in Berlin on
Thursday after meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "The penalty is
death."
Nguyen visited with his mother, Kim, twin brother, Nguyen Khoa, a friend and
his lawyers Thursday afternoon.
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