AUSTRALIA. WORLDWIDE CAMPAIGN TO SAVE DRUG MULE ON DEATH ROW ON SINGAPORE

Amnesty International launched a worldwide campaign to save Nguyen Tuong Van, an Australian heroin smuggler condemned to hang in Singapore. The international human rights watchdog asked its global network of more than 1.8 million activists in 140 countries to lobby on behalf of Nguyen. The former Melbourne salesman was caught with 396 grams of heroin strapped to his body and in his hand luggage at Singapore's Changi airport in 2002.
"Amnesty International has mobilised its emergency response network of thousands of people worldwide, who intervene in situations where there is an immediate threat to life, to appeal to the Singaporean authorities to show compassion and grant clemency to Van Tuong Nguyen," Amnesty Australia spokesman Tim Goodwin said.
Members were being urged to write to Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Foreign Minister Shanmugam Jayakumar, Attorney-General Chan Sek Keong, and Canberra-based Singapore High Commissioner Joseph Koh. Amnesty International earlier in the week said it was appalled by the decision to reject clemency. It said Singapore had the highest per capita execution rate in the world, having executed more than 420 people since 1991, the majority for drug trafficking.
Australia’s Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said he had spoken to Singapore's high commissioner, and written to its foreign minister, urging them to spare Nguyen.
"I was absolutely clear cut, and spoke to the high commissioner in the strongest terms, about our request that this young man's life be spared," Rudd said. "Time is running out (and) it's important that we put these matters directly to our friends in Singapore and ask that this matter be reconsidered."