Pubdate: Fri, 02 Dec 2005
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2005 The New York Times Company
Contact: letters@nytimes.com
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Nguyen+Tuong+Van
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Death+Penalty (Death Penalty)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Singapore

SINGAPORE HANGS SMUGGLER

SINGAPORE - As a small group of protesters stood silently outside the
prison in the early light, the authorities here on Friday hanged a
25-year-old Australian man convicted of trying to smuggle heroin
through Singapore.

Singapore rejected pleas for clemency from the Australian government
and threats of an anti-Singapore boycott by opponents of the death
penalty there.

Officials at Changi prison were scheduled to execute the man, Nguyen
Tuong Van, at precisely 6 a.m. The Home Affairs Ministry confirmed in
an e-mailed statement that the execution had been carried out, The
Associated Press reported.

Mr. Nguyen was arrested in 2002 with 14 ounces of heroin at
Singapore's Changi airport on his way from Cambodia to Australia. He
was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to death last year.