A Very Stupid Young Man

[bdenner]

I searched the News Clippings forum for this subject and was supprised that it was not mentioned concidering the Thai connection. (Searched "Nguyen")

IMO this stupid young man does not deserve this fate. It's a long story, he was trying to help out his brother who was in financial difficulties.

From ABC Online

Nguyen death sentence 'irreversible'

Singapore's decision to hang Australian heroin smuggler Van Nguyen is "irreversible", Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says.

Mr Downer met Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum and lobbied against the planned execution of Van Nguyen, but was told it was final.

The Australian Government has mounted a diplomatic campaign to save the life of Nguyen, 25, arrested in Singapore in 2002 with 400 grams of heroin while in transit between Cambodia and Australia.

Singaporean President SR Nathan, following Cabinet consultations, has rejected appeals for clemency and Nguyen is likely to be executed soon.

"I once more explained to him how concerned we are about his impending execution and repeated my view... that we hope that the Singapore Government would be prepared to reconsider," Mr Downer told reporters.

"In the end he [Yeo]said the decision of the Singapore Cabinet has been made, the decision of the President has been made and those decisions are irreversible."

Asked about the possible date of Nguyen's execution, Mr Downer said: "In the recent short-term".

Mr Downer said that while he would continue to push for a reversal, he did not want to give false hopes to Nguyen's family.

"I will always try to do my best to save the life of this Australian. But I don't want to raise false expectations and false hopes. It's not only wrong for me to do that, it's cruel."

Nguyen and a twin brother were born in a refugee camp in Thailand, and he was said to have cooperated fully with Singapore police and admitted he had become a drug mule to help pay off his brother's debts.

Mr Yeo last month wrote to Mr Downer saying that, while Singapore understood the reasons for the appeals by the Australian Government and from Nguyen's family and friends, the city-state's laws must be upheld.

The volume of pure heroin recovered from Nguyen would have supplied more than 26,000 doses to drug addicts, Mr Yeo said in the letter.

The death sentence is mandatory in Singapore for trafficking more than 15 grams of heroin, 30 grams of cocaine and 500 grams of cannabis, as well as for other crimes such as murder, treason, kidnapping and certain firearms offences.

For drugs, a person caught in possession of illegal substances is assumed to be trafficking, thus putting the burden of proof on the accused.

Human rights watchdog Amnesty International said last year more than 400 people had been executed in Singapore between 1991 and 2003, which it described as a "shocking number" for a nation of just over four million people.

Amnesty has also criticised Singapore for releasing scant information about death row convicts and their conditions.

[Crossy]

Not wanting to start a war (these threads often get out of hand).

As was constantly fed to us in Korea via AFKN (I'm a Brit by the way, AFKN was one of only two English language channels available at the time):-

"If you can't do the time, don't do the crime".

He knew the law, he surely knew the penalty, he got caught, tough!

[andyfletch]

Not wanting to start a war (these threads often get out of hand).

As was constantly fed to us in Korea via AFKN (I'm a Brit by the way, AFKN was one of only two English language channels available at the time):-

"If you can't do the time, don't do the crime".

He knew the law, he surely knew the penalty, he got caught, tough!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Seconded - how many more times must we see this

[Ice Maiden]

This young man may only be 25 years old but that should be no excuse for commiting crimes. If he wasn't aware of penalties in another country he should of educated himself on them first really.

In other countries penalities can be different and more servere from your own and it is something worth checking out. And it carn't be brushed off as an innocent mistake, did he really think it was okay to carry drugs to another country and plead guilty for not knowing the law and being young?

I am younger than this man and I wouldn't dare do such antics because I would take a very good assumption that it is illegal.

[cdnvic]

This subject had been done to death. Write to someone who matters.

/closed