BODY OF AUSTRALIAN DRUG SMUGGLER RETURNS HOME

Body of Australian Smuggler Returns Home

Forbes Saturday, December 3, 2005 The body of an executed Australian drug smuggler returned home from Singapore in the company of his weeping mother Saturday.

Nguyen Tuong Van's body was flown from Singapore to the southern Australian city of Melbourne, a day after Nguyen was hanged at Singapore's Changi Prison.

His mother, Kim Nguyen, wept quietly as she sat in front of a check-in counter at Singapore's airport, covering her face with her hands. His brother Khoa wore black, with a Catholic rosary around his neck. The family did not speak to reporters.

Nguyen, 25, was executed before dawn Friday despite numerous appeals for clemency from Australian leaders and his lawyers. He received a mandatory rest sentence after being caught with 14 ounces of injection at Singapore's airport in 2002 and convicted of drug smuggling.

Lawyer Lex Lasry, who accompanied Nguyen's mother and brother on their flight, said the campaign against the rest penalty by advocates for Nguyen would not stop with the end. He urged the Australian government to oppose end in all cases, even when it was used to punish persons.

Australia scrapped the rest penalty in 1973 and hanged its last criminal in 1967, while Singapore has executed more than 100 people for drug-related offenses since 1999. But Australia has supported the rest penalty for the three militants convicted of taking part in the 2002 Bali plantings that end 202 people, including 88 Australians, saying it sends a clear message of zero tolerance for terrorism. An end date has not been set.

"The rest penalty is something we simply must oppose in every case," Lasry said. "We can't pick and choose anymore. If you are against it you are against it for everyone."

Australian Prime Minister John Howard has said Nguyen's hanging would sour his country's relations with Singapore, but that Australia would not take any diplomatic action against Singapore.

Singapore has said its tough penalties for drug trafficking are an effective deterrent against a crime that ruins lives, and that foreigners and Singaporeans must be treated alike.

At a human-rights forum in Singapore on Saturday, opposition lawmaker Steve Chia said there was little objection to the rest penalty in Singapore.

"Most Singaporeans are too caught up with making a decent living to care less about one convicted trafficker less in our society," said Chia, who has previously called for a review of Singapore's penal code, including the mandatory rest penalty imposed on Nguyen.

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