SINGAPORE. AUSTRALIAN TO BE EXECUTED FOR HEROIN SMUGGLING

Nguyen Tuong Van, an Australian man convicted of drugs charges in Singapore lost his final appeal for clemency and was due for execution, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said. Nguyen, 25, had been sentenced to death in March 2004 after being convicted for smuggling almost 400 grams (0.9 lb) of heroin from Vietnam. He was arrested at Singapore's Changi Airport in December 2002, where he was in transit for Australia.
Downer, Prime Minister John Howard and Governor-General Michael Jeffery had all pleaded for clemency for Nguyen, who was to become the first Australian to be executed for drugs charges in Southeast Asia since 1993.
"We are very sad that this has happened. We have done our best, we have done everything we can to save his life," Downer told reporters in Adelaide. "The execution is expected to be carried out fairly quickly, which is the custom in Singapore."
Nguyen's Melbourne-based lawyer Lex Lasry said the Singapore decision was devastating for Nguyen, his family and "anyone who values humane treatment of their fellow human beings". "Death by hanging is hideous. Further, it is grossly out of proportion to the crime committed," he said in a statement, adding that Nguyen had admitted his guilt and cooperated with authorities.