UNITED NATIONS. UN OFFICIAL URGES SINGAPORE NOT TO EXECUTE AUSTRALIAN
Philip Alston, special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions for the UN Commission on Human Rights, urged the Singapore government not to hang Nguyen Tuong Van, a convicted Australian heroin trafficker, saying the execution violated
Philip Alston, special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions for the UN Commission on Human Rights, urged the Singapore government not to hang Nguyen Tuong Van, a convicted Australian heroin trafficker, saying the execution violated international legal standards.
Singapore had turned down clemency requests from Australia and the Roman Catholic Church for Nguyen, who received a mandatory death sentence after being caught with 396 grams of heroin at the city-state's Changi Airport in 2002. Singapore's government said the death penalty was a deterrent against serious crimes such as murder and firearm use, and that it helped keep crime and drug abuse rates low.
Alston said the city-state's use of a mandatory death sentence for certain drug trafficking convictions was inappropriate.
"Making such a penalty mandatory - thereby eliminating the discretion of the court - makes it impossible to take into account mitigating or extenuating circumstances and eliminates any individual determination of an appropriate sentence in a particular case," Alston said.
"The adoption of such a black and white approach is entirely inappropriate where the life of the accused is at stake," Alston said. "Once the sentence has been carried out it is irreversible."
Singapore had turned down clemency requests from Australia and the Roman Catholic Church for Nguyen, who received a mandatory death sentence after being caught with 396 grams of heroin at the city-state's Changi Airport in 2002. Singapore's government said the death penalty was a deterrent against serious crimes such as murder and firearm use, and that it helped keep crime and drug abuse rates low.
Alston said the city-state's use of a mandatory death sentence for certain drug trafficking convictions was inappropriate.
"Making such a penalty mandatory - thereby eliminating the discretion of the court - makes it impossible to take into account mitigating or extenuating circumstances and eliminates any individual determination of an appropriate sentence in a particular case," Alston said.
"The adoption of such a black and white approach is entirely inappropriate where the life of the accused is at stake," Alston said. "Once the sentence has been carried out it is irreversible."
— SOURCES
- (Sources: Dow Jones Commodities Service, 15/11/2005)