Saturday - December 03, 2005

Weekend Discussion: Nguyen Tuong Van

Three years in a prison in Singapore. A year and a half on death row. A five minute walk to the gallows. A few seconds to fall before the rope tightens and the neck snaps. All this for smuggling 400 grams of heroin. I’m on the fence on this one. Help me decide.

I have provided two clips from yesterday and today’s news below as well as a link to the official trial transcript. In spite of what you may think of Singapore, the trial record shows a remarkably sophisticated judicial system with well-defined laws and punishments for crimes and protection for the accused in the form of defense attorneys and evidentiary proof requirements.

With that said, help me understand if you think this punishment was justified and whether or not hanging should be condoned. Bear in mind that this is not the US or the UK or any Western country where this happened. I have a certain opinion on this but I want to hear from our readers first ....

A Final Embrace Before Van Faced Fate
December 2, 2005
(WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN)

Just before dawn, as the rest of Changi prison’s inmates slept, Australian drug trafficker Nguyen Tuong Van took his last steps, embraced a prison official and with his mind “at great peace”, met his death on the gallows. Almost three years to the day after he was arrested carrying heroin through Singapore’s international airport, the 25-year-old former Melbourne salesman was put to death under the island state’s unwavering capital punishment laws.

Twin brother Khoa sat in a room with friends in the prison’s visitor centre, so he could be near Van for his final moments, as his mother, Kim, prayed for her son’s soul in a service held at a small chapel across town. At 6am (AEDT 9am), the scheduled time of his execution, no official word came - but there was little doubt in the minds of his family and friends that the long and torturous battle to save Van had been lost.

Van’s Australian-based barrister, Julian McMahon, said Mrs Nguyen had been “well prepared” by her condemned son and was the most composed she had been for months. In the minutes before his death, Van was joined in prayer by two prison pastoral workers, who later described him as “calm and inspiring to the end”.

- More on Van’s execution here ...

Body of Australian Smuggler Returns Home
December 3, 2005
SINGAPORE (AP)

The body of an executed Australian drug smuggler returned home from Singapore in the company of his weeping mother Saturday. Nguyen Tuong Van’s body was flown from Singapore to the southern Australian city of Melbourne, a day after Nguyen was hanged at Singapore’s Changi Prison. His mother, Kim Nguyen, wept quietly as she sat in front of a check-in counter at Singapore’s airport, covering her face with her hands. His brother Khoa wore black, with a Catholic rosary around his neck. The family did not speak to reporters.

Nguyen, 25, was executed before dawn Friday despite numerous appeals for clemency from Australian leaders and his lawyers. He received a mandatory death sentence after being caught with 14 ounces of heroin at Singapore’s airport in 2002 and convicted of drug smuggling. Lawyer Lex Lasry, who accompanied Nguyen’s mother and brother on their flight, said the campaign against the death penalty by advocates for Nguyen would not stop with the execution. He urged the Australian government to oppose execution in all cases, even when it was used to punish terrorists.

Australia scrapped the death penalty in 1973 and hanged its last criminal in 1967, while Singapore has executed more than 100 people for drug-related offenses since 1999. But Australia has supported the death penalty for the three militants convicted of taking part in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, saying it sends a clear message of zero tolerance for terrorism. An execution date has not been set. “The death penalty is something we simply must oppose in every case,” Lasry said. “We can’t pick and choose anymore. If you are against it you are against it for everyone.”

- More on the Australian reaction here ...

PUBLIC PROSECUTOR vs Nguyen Tuong Van
Suit No: CC 43/2003
Decision Date: 20 Mar 2004
Court: High Court
Coram: Kan Ting Chiu
Counsel: Han Ming Kuang and Lee Cheow Han (Deputy Public Prosecutors) for prosecution, Joseph Theseira (Naidu Mohan and Theseira) and Tito Shane Isaac (Tito Isaac and Co) for accused

The accused, Nguyen Tuong Van, appeared before me charged that he:

1. [O]n the 12th day of December 2002, at or about 3.06 pm, at Changi International Airport Terminal 2, Singapore, did import into Singapore, a controlled drug specified in Class “A” of the First Schedule to the Misuse of Drugs Act, Chapter 185, to wit, 2 packets of powdery substance containing not less than 396.2 grams of diamorphine, without any authorisation under the said Act or the Regulations made thereunder, and [he has] thereby committed an offence under section 7 of the Misuse of Drugs Act, Chapter 185 and punishable under section 33 of the Misuse of Drugs Act.

2. He is an Australian national aged 23 years. On 12 December 2002 he arrived in Singapore from Phnom Penh. At about 7.45pm he was at Boarding Gate C22 of the airport waiting to board a flight to Melbourne. During a routine check, a police officer felt something bulky on his lower back. He was brought to a search room for a thorough search, taking his haversack and business bag with him.

3. In the search room he was asked to remove his jacket and shirt. When that was done, a plastic packet was seen strapped to his lower back with masking tape. At that stage he started crying and tried to hit his head against a wall.

4. Sergeant Teh Kim Leng (“Sgt Teh”), the officer in charge of the security screening unit, was notified. He went to the search room and saw the accused, who appeared to be in distress, holding his head with his hands. When Sgt Teh asked him what was on his back, the accused replied that it was heroin. With the help of Sgt Teh the accused removed the packet from his body. When Sgt Teh asked him if there was anything to declare in his luggage, the accused opened the haversack, took out another packet, and handed it to him.

5. The two packets were subsequently sent for analysis. The packet from the body was found to contain not less than 151.5g of diamorphine and the other packet not less than 244.7g. The analysis results were not disputed.

6. The Central Narcotics Bureau (“CNB”) was then informed of the matter. At 9.10pm CNB officers arrived at the airport and took over the case from the airport police. At about 10.05pm Station Inspector Ng Beng Chin (“SI Ng”) spoke to the accused and recorded a statement from him. SI Ng and the accused appended their signatures to the statement after it was recorded and read back to the accused.

- Read the official trial transcripts here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/03/2005 at 12:39 PM   
Filed Under: • Crime • International • Judges-Courts-Lawyers •  
• Comments (28) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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