Australia tries to prevent execution in Singapore

Australia is considering taking Singapore to the International Court of Justice in a desperate bid to prevent the execution of a heroin trafficker on December 2, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said today.

Singapore has refused Canberra’s repeated pleas for clemency for Nguyen Tuong Van, 25, an Australian citizen who was arrested at Singapore’s Changi Airport in 2002 while flying from Cambodia to the southern Australian city of Melbourne carrying 396 grams of heroin.

Downer said he would discuss with Van Nguyen’s Australian lawyer Lex Lasry today the option of going to the International Court of Justice in the Netherlands.

But he conceded that Australia would then face the dual hurdles of persuading Singapore to recognise the court’s jurisdiction and getting the court to hear the case.

“My own preliminary view is that it would be almost impossible to bring a case to the International Court of Justice because you would have to have Singapore’s agreement to do so,” Downer told reporters in the southern city of Adelaide.

“The chance of Singapore agreeing to a case being brought to the International Court of Justice are fairly obviously remote given the position they have taken on the execution of Nguyen,” he added.

The opposition Labour Party, which has accused Singapore of treating Australia with contempt over the execution, supports the attempted legal action.

“I believe where there is life, there is hope,” Labour’s foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd told reporters in the east coast city of Brisbane.

Downer ruled out using trade sanctions or Singapore Airlines’ desire to be allowed to fly between Australia and the US as bargaining chips to save the condemned man.

But Prime Minister John Howard warned Singapore not to think the execution - despite Van Nguyen’s lack of previous offences and willingness to co-operate with authorities – would be ignored.

“The Singaporean government should not imagine that this issue is going unnoticed in Australia,” Howard told Australian Broadcasting Corp. Radio.

“There is great feeling and conviction in our country that on this occasion, the death penalty should not be imposed,” he added.

If the court case proceeds, Lasry said Van Nguyen’s legal team would argue that the mandatory death penalty breached international human rights law.

Lasry said leaders attending this week’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Malta would be urged to pressure Singapore to change its mind.

Nguyen’s mother Kim Nguyen and twin brother Khoa Nguyen arrived in Singapore late today from Melbourne to visit the condemned man. They did not speak to reporters at the airport and were whisked away by Australian High Commission officials.

Van Nguyen says he was trafficking heroin to help pay off his twin’s debts.

Asked how Kim Nguyen was coping with the prospect of saying goodbye to her son, Lasry told the Nine Network television: “Of course, she’s hoping that something miraculous will happen."