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joe_doufu
Joined: 09 May 2005
Location: Elsewhere
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 Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 5:20 am Post subject: Singapore Executes Australian Drug Trafficker |
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Guess what? Being a citizen of a Western country is no longer a license to get away with trafficking drugs in Asia. Singapore hanged that Thai-born Australian guy today.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051202/wl_nm/crime_singapore_australia_dc
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SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore executed an Australian drug trafficker on Friday, despite repeated pleas from Australia's government for clemency and quiet protests by thousands opposed to the death penalty.
Nguyen Tuong Van was hanged at the city-state's Changi prison just before dawn. Within minutes, a large church bell in Nguyen's home city of Melbourne tolled 25 times -- once for every year of his life.
The hanging follows weeks of campaigning by his family and civil rights groups to stop the execution. Nguyen, who was born in a refugee camp in Thailand, was described by lawyers in his final hours as calm, resolute and ready to die.
Thousands of people gathered in Australia to pray for Nguyen while Singapore activists moved in pairs overnight to light candles at the prison. Public gatherings of more than four people require a police permit in the tightly controlled city-state.
"I hope the strongest message that comes out of this ... is to the young of Australia. Don't have anything to do with drugs, don't use them, don't touch them, don't carry them, don't traffic in them," Australian Prime Minister John Howard said.
Some 420 people have been hanged in Singapore since 1991, mostly for drug trafficking, an Amnesty International 2004 report said. That gives the country of 4.4 million people the highest execution rate in the world relative to population.
Opponents of the death penalty say support for capital punishment is weakening around the world. But at least 3,797 people were executed in 2004, according to Amnesty figures, which the group says is the second-highest number recorded since it started monitoring executions 25 years ago.
As Singapore and Australia absorbed news of the execution, the United States prepared to execute the 1000th prisoner since capital punishment was reinstated there nearly 30 years ago.
HELD HANDS
Diplomacy gave way to frustration this week in Australia, a staunch opponent of capital punishment, as its attorney-general branded Nguyen's impending execution a "barbaric" act.
About 70 people, including Australian politicians, gathered outside the Singapore High Commission in Canberra on Friday with a banner reading "Oh Singapore, how could you?" while protesters clutching flowers rallied in Sydney and Melbourne.
"The Singapore government had a very hard heart," said the Nguyen family's parish priest, Father Peter Norden, who led a service in Melbourne.
In a tiny concession to Australia, Singapore's prison authority allowed Nguyen to hold hands with his mother before his execution but rejected pleas to let them have a final hug.
Nguyen's twin brother Khoa and a lawyer arrived at the prison at dawn. They could not witness the execution but said they wanted to be as close as possible to him when he died. His mother Kim was in a Singapore chapel with friends, praying for her son.
"She said to me she was talking to him and able to touch his hair and face. It was a great comfort to her," Nguyen's lawyer Julian McMahon told reporters outside the prison.
Analysts said short-term relations between the countries would be strained because of the execution but said Singapore would not likely budge on its mandatory death sentence for crimes such as murder, firearms offences and drug trafficking.
"Singapore is a small, affluent society next door to one of the world's biggest suppliers of drugs -- the golden triangle. I think Singapore would have been a very different place if it was not tough on it," said political analyst Seah Chiang Nee.
Singapore is one of Australia's strongest allies in Asia and Howard has rejected calls for trade and military boycotts.
(Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols in Canberra) |
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bigverne
Joined: 12 May 2004
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| Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 5:59 am Post subject: |
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| Singapore is one of the safest places in the world. |
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itaewonguy
Joined: 25 Mar 2003
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| Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 6:22 am Post subject: |
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| bigverne wrote: |
| Singapore is one of the safest places in the world. |
hahahahahah is that right?
Singapore is corrupted state which is run as a communist way!
safe my ass!! I have been there 6 times and didnt find it any different to thailand! a country which only has 2 million people compared to thailand which has something like 50!!!
what you think you cant find drugs in singapore?
what you think there are no criminals in singapore?
you think this murder of the australian guy which was carried out by the singaporean government will stop people from trafficiing drugs?
NOPE!! it wont!!!
sad thing is..
western nations, singapores more civilized neighbours are not doing enough about it this barbaric way of killing people! death penalty???
for drugs??? COME ON!!!! an eye for eye yes!!
not drugs!! what life in prison is not enough?? GIVE ME A BREAK!! |
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bigverne
Joined: 12 May 2004
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| Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 6:38 am Post subject: |
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| Singapore is corrupted state which is run as a communist way! |
No, it's an authoritarian state, whose leaders have managed to turn what was largely swampland into one of the most prosperous and peaceable cities in the world. If you want corrupt and crime ridden, go to Manilla, the capital of the democratic Phillipines.
I'm not sure about executing people, but it is true that Singapore is very close to some of the largest drug producing nations in the world and does not want criminal mafias to flourish in its territory. It must take a tough stance on drugs. Moreover, anyone who trafficks drugs into Singapore must be very stupid indeed. Everyone knows the law and the possible punishments. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 6:50 am Post subject: |
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| I don't mean to be insensitive, but I have to wonder if the guy would have been hanged if he had been white. |
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bigverne
Joined: 12 May 2004
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| Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 6:54 am Post subject: |
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| That's a good point actually. I'm sure there would have been more outrage from the Aussies had he been a born and bred White Australian. Pity he wasn't in Indonesia. Then he could have pretended to be a muslim and got off. |
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joe_doufu
Joined: 09 May 2005
Location: Elsewhere
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| Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 7:01 am Post subject: |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
| I don't mean to be insensitive, but I have to wonder if the guy would have been hanged if he had been white. |
I wonder, too. |
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Hater Depot
Joined: 29 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 12:42 pm Post subject: |
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Being white didn't help Shapelle Corby. And unlike her there was no doubt about this guy's guilt.
But certainly, next time Singapore and Bali are looking for a billion dollars in tsunami relief aid, I think Australia is going to stick it's hands in its pockets and start whistling Waltzing Matilda. |
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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 2:02 pm Post subject: |
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| Hater Depot wrote: |
Being white didn't help Shapelle Corby. And unlike her there was no doubt about this guy's guilt.
But certainly, next time Singapore and Bali are looking for a billion dollars in tsunami relief aid, I think Australia is going to stick it's hands in its pockets and start whistling Waltzing Matilda. |
corby didn't get the death sentence. No doubt if this dude was white, he would have still been imprisoned. I think the others were speculating on the death sentence, nothing more.
And judging by the guy's family name, he is vietnamese, not thai. not that it makes a difference... |
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The Man known as The Man
Joined: 29 Mar 2003
Location: 3 cheers for Ted Haggard oh yeah!
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| Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 2:18 pm Post subject: |
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| joe_doufu wrote: |
| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
| I don't mean to be insensitive, but I have to wonder if the guy would have been hanged if he had been white. |
I wonder, too. |
RAchel Corrie betted on it herself. |
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Hater Depot
Joined: 29 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 2:26 pm Post subject: |
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| Was Corby eligible for the death penalty? |
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keithinkorea
Joined: 17 Mar 2004
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| Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 2:37 pm Post subject: |
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Death sentences should not happen. Death sentences are things that uncivilised governments carry out.
Of course the guy is a complete dickhead for trying to smuggle drugs into a country where they will kill you for it, but the question is should you be executed for stupidity? I'd say no. Should it matter what your race-ethnicity-sex-political orientation is? Of course not. The death penalty is barbaric.
It's interesting, I was watching a show earlier and an interviewee made a really good point. He said that all the countries (except China) who executed the most people had strongly religious governments. I would argue that China has an almost 'religious' government in its rejections of religion. Other countries with non religious governmental systems-personnel who have the death penalty such as south Korea and Japan rarely use it. Religious people seem to love to kill.
It's amazing the primitive attitudes that some religious folks have. Ohh murder is a capital offence but abortion clinic bombers are doing gods work!
It is all very confusing. In summary dont do anything stupid in a country that has the death penalty.
The thing is that people who are smart enough to figure that out, or find a way to do illegal things with no risk wont get caught. It's an apartheid against stupidity! Except for if you're an American where you have a lot higher chance of dying for your stupid crime if you're of a non white persuasion.
Personally I think you should only get the death penalty in the US if you voted republican last time around and commited a heinous crime.
The death penalty is a disgusting barbaric hangover of less civilised times. All the worst countries in the world have it and non of the best do. |
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bigverne
Joined: 12 May 2004
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| Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 4:53 pm Post subject: |
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| It's amazing the primitive attitudes that some religious folks have. Ohh murder is a capital offence but abortion clinic bombers are doing gods work! |
It's also amazing the simplistic, stereotyping crap that some Brits say about Americans. Most Americans support the death penalty. Most, I am sure, do not support abortion clinic bombers, so it's a tenuous link you're trying to make there.
Moreover, the majority of people in the UK support the death penalty, and violent crime and murder have increased massively since it was abolished, although that has more to do with societal breakdown than anything else. Personally, I think societies that allow convicted rapists, murderers and paedophiles to walk free after serving 'life' sentences are pretty uncivilized. |
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Cthulhu
Joined: 02 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 5:28 pm Post subject: |
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Most Canadians supported the death penalty back in the 80's but the government in their wisdom (or lack of balls as the case may be--they probably had an eye towards the courts and the Charter) decided that a free vote on the issue would be caving in to the demands of the great unwashed, er, the general public. I suppose if life imprisonment actually meant something in Canada I wouldn't be as bothered about this decision. The way it is now it only applies to genuine psychopaths and multiple murderers, and apparently the latter groups even deserve humane treatment of all things.
As far as Singapore goes, they set out the rules and Nguyen knew what was coming. Ya-ta might be right--whitey might receive more pause than Nguyen did, which is unfortunate in itself, but it doesn't lessen his responsibilty for his actions. By the same token I'm not shedding a tear that Corby is still in the slammer. |
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Barking Mad Lord Snapcase
Joined: 04 Nov 2003
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| Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 8:16 pm Post subject: |
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| Cthulhu wrote: |
| By the same token I'm not shedding a tear that Corby is still in the slammer. |
What about David Hicks? |
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