A family photo of Nguyen Tuong Van

AUSTRALIA. CANBERRA STEPS UP LAST-MINUTE APPEALS TO SINGAPORE OVER NATIONAL ON DEATH ROW

October 24, 2005: Canberra issued a forceful last-minute appeal to Singapore to spare the life of Nguyen Tyong Van, a condemned Australian drug smuggler, after the island state ignored repeated pleas for clemency from Australia's top leaders. Nguyen had been sentenced to hang for smuggling 400 grams (14 ounces) of heroin into Singapore in 2002. He told police he was smuggling the drugs to Australia to help pay off a debt owed by his twin brother. Australia had lobbied for months that he be spared the death penalty but Singapore's President S. R. Nathan refused clemency.  Foreign Minister Downer expressed his dismay at the Singapore government's response to Australia's appeals, which came from virtually the entire top leadership in Canberra, and said he was making a final attempt to save Nguyen.
"We've had the governor-general, the prime minister and me lobbying every imaginable relevant person in Singapore over quite some long period of time now."
"We've made very strong pleas for the sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment instead of the death sentence, and we've appealed to the president, the prime minister, the other ministers of the government, including the foreign minister for clemency... and, unfortunately, so far we have not been successful," he said.
"I will certainly be writing back to Singapore's foreign minister to express my disappointment," he said. (Sources: Agence France Presse, 24/10/2005)