Sanitised and Callous Singapore Lacks Compassion: Hanging of Nguyen Tuong Van on Friday 2 December

Sanitised and Callous Singapore Lacks Compassion: Hanging of Nguyen Tuong Van on Friday 2 December

 

Other Breaking News USA: Mark Warner, Governor of Virginia on Tuesday commuted the death sentence of a convicted murderer who would have been the 1,000th person executed in the US since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. Mr Warner, who had denied 11 previous pleas for clemency, said Robin Lovitt, sentenced to death in 1999 for the murder of a pool hall manager, would face life in prison without parole. Mr Lovitt had been due to die by lethal injection on Tuesday night. Read here for more

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SINGAPORE'S High Commissioner in Australia Joseph Koh has defended his country's decision to execute convicted drug trafficker Nguyen Tuong Van as correct and responsible.

Mr Koh said Singapore had NOT breached international law, with no existing international agreement to abolish the death penalty. He added:

"Capital punishment remains part of the criminal justice systems of 76 countries, including in the United States, where it is practised in 38 states.


We respect Australia's sovereign choice not to have capital punishment.

We hope Australia will likewise respect Singapore's sovereign choice to impose the death penalty for the most serious crimes, including drug trafficking"

Mr Koh's comments were in direct contradiction to a statement issued by former Australian High Court judge and governor-general Sir William Deane yesterday.

Sir William, who commented on the Nguyen case in a "private capacity", said Friday's planned execution was a breach of the standards of international law. Read here for more

AUSTRALIANS were seeking a miracle in asking Singapore to commute the death penalty for Van Tuong Nguyen, former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Fraser said today. "I've never really believed that the Singapore Government, which prides itself on its strength, on not changing its mind, was ever going to change the decision and provide clemency as a result of public pressure," he said on ABC radio. Read here for more

Australia: The Australian Transport Workers Union (TWU) is considering taking action against Singapore Airlines as a protest against Friday's planned execution of convicted drug smuggler Nguyen Tuong Van. The union's federal committee is meeting in Melbourne today to discuss a range of bans on the airline, including a proposal not to refuel Singapore Airlines planes. Read here for more

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Australian judges have added their voice to calls for the Singapore Government to grant clemency to Australian, Nguyen Tuong Van , who faces execution on Friday for trafficking heroin.

The Chairman of the Judicial Conference of Australia, Justice Ronald Sackville, says the organisation does not have the power to influence judges in Singapore.

But he says the judges want to highlight the human rights implications of Singapore's drug laws that make the death sentence mandatory for certain offences.

Justice Sackville says there is international disagreement with Singapore law, which says hanging is mandatory if a person is caught with MORE than 15 grams of drugs.

Justice Ronald Sackville added:

"The dividing line is 15 grams, anything above that the judiciary has absolutely no discretion. The offender must be sentenced to death by hanging.

Under 15 grams that sentence does not apply, that's one of the points we wanted to make very strongly that there are real issues of human rights about the application of the mandatory death penalty in those circumstances."

In 2004 the Privy Council held unconstitutional the mandatory death penalty in Carribean countries.

They made some very critical comments about the 1981 decision that upheld the mandatory death penalty in Singapore.

Among other things they said that the 1981 decision had been made at a time when international jurisprudence on human rights was rudimentary."

Meanwhile, the South Australian Premier Mike Rann has called for people to put Nguyen's planned execution into perspective.

Lobby groups have proposed sanctions against Singapore in protest and there has been a suggestion of a minute's silence to mark the execution.

Mr Rann says while he opposes the death penalty, Nguyen should not be made out as some sort of hero.

"If they aren't aware of what the laws are now then they must be living in some other planet," he said.

"So I just think that Van Nguyen is not Florence Nightingale, Van Nguyen is one of a number people who want to peddle death to our young people and make money out of it and it doesn't come much lower than that."

Read here original article in ABC News

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