Fate sealed for convict in Singapore - Australia PM
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Nothing more can be done to save an Australian drug smuggler due to be executed in Singapore next week, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said amid calls for Australians to boycott companies linked to the city-state.
Howard said the planned Dec. 2 hanging of 25-year-old Nguyen Tuong Van -- who was convicted by Singapore of trying to smuggle 400 grams (0.9 lb) of heroin from Cambodia -- could now only be stopped by the Singapore government.
Lawyers for Nguyen asked the Australian government on Monday to take the case to the United Nations International Court of Justice, but Howard said the court has no jurisdiction and that there was no point giving Nguyen's mother any false hope.
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Kim Nguyen, mother of convicted Australian drug trafficker Nguyen Tuong Van, waits in a vehicle after arriving at Singapore's Changi airport November 21, 2005. (REUTERS/Nicky Loh) |
Nguyen's mother, who privately met Howard last week, and his twin brother visited him in Singapore on Tuesday. Australia has said Nguyen, who is from the southern city of Melbourne, was carrying drugs to help his brother pay off debts to loan sharks.
Australia asked for clemency on the grounds that Nguyen had cooperated and could be a witness in future drug cases.
Victoria state Attorney General Rob Hulls plans to travel to Singapore later on Wednesday in a last-ditch plea for Nguyen's life and is due to meet Singapore's Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs Ho Peng Kee on Thursday.
Opposition Labor leader Kym Beazley said that while it was unlikely an appeal to the International Court of Justice would be successful, Australia should still proceed with the case.
"It's not simply just about winning -- it's about putting on a bit of pressure," Beazley told reporters on Wednesday.
A television straw poll showed on Wednesday that 43 percent of Australians believed Nguyen's case should be taken to the International Court of Justice, while 48 percent agreed with Howard that nothing more could be done.
Internet lobby group www.getup.org.au said nearly 6,000 Australians have emailed Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, while Amnesty International has received several thousand text messages supporting its campaign opposing Nguyen's hanging.
Although Howard has dismissed calls for trade sanctions to be imposed on Singapore over the case, human rights campaigners have suggested Australians boycott companies linked to the city-state.
"There can be a consumer strike -- that is Australians can decide not to purchase products made in Singapore or services offered by the Singaporean government," human rights lawyer Tim Robertson told Australian Broadcasting Corp. television.
"Most of the major companies in Singapore are in fact owned directly or indirectly by the government there."
Howard said he would not raise Nguyen's case at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Malta this week.
Copyright © 2008 Reuters
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