Singapore's premier said he would consider a bid for clemency from Australia

Singapore's premier said he would consider a bid for clemency from Australia for one of its citizens, Nguyen Tuong Van, sentenced to hang for drug-smuggling in the wealthy city-state. Van was arrested at Changi airport in December 2002 while traveling from Cambodia to Melbourne and convicted of smuggling 400 grams (14 ounces) of heroin. Singapore's High Court upheld the death sentence in October 2004 after Van's lawyers appealed.
"It's a very serious offence. You know, in Singapore we treat drug offences very, very seriously," Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told a joint news conference with Australian Prime Minister John Howard when asked about this personal feelings on Van's fate.
If Howard's clemency bid failed, Van would be the first Australian citizen executed in Singapore.