SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore has sacked its long-serving
hangman, less than a week before the scheduled execution of an
Australian drug smuggler, after his identity and picture was
exposed by media.
"They called me a few days ago and said I don't have to
hang Nguyen and that I don't have to work anymore," Chief
executioner Darshan Singh told Reuters on Sunday.
"I think they (the prison authorities) must be mad after
seeing my pictures in the newspapers," Singh said.
Australia's Sunday Telegraph said a new executioner was
expected to be flown into Singapore this week to carry out the
December 2 hanging of 25-year-old Nguyen Tuong Van, who was
sentenced to death for carrying 400 grams (0.9 lb) of heroin
while in transit at the island-nation's airport.
Singh, a 74-year-old ethnic Indian, was reported in the
Australian media to have conducted more than 850 hangings in
his 50-year career. The reports said Singh had wanted to
retire, but the search for a replacement was unsuccessful.
Singapore's prison department could not be reached for
comment.
Despite repeated pleas from Australia to reconsider
clemency for the former salesman, Singapore has stood firm on
its decision, saying that Nguyen was caught with enough heroin
"for 26,000 doses" and that the government would not allow
Singapore to be used as a transit for illicit drugs.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard has warned Singapore
to prepare for lingering resentment in Australia if it goes
ahead with the execution of Nguyen, but Howard has rejected
public calls in Australia for boycotts of Singaporean companies
and trade sanctions with one of its closest Asian allies.
Howard made another personal appeal to Singapore's Prime
Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the Commonwealth Heads of
Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Malta on Saturday, Australian
media reported on Sunday.
"I did have quite a discussion with him and he was left in
no doubt as to the intensity of feeling within Australia,"
Howard told reporters. "There will be lingering resentment on
the part of many Australians regarding this issue.
"They (Singapore) are certainly carefully monitoring what
is occurring, but I am equally of the view, as I have been now
for some time, that the government of Singapore is not going to
change its mind."
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark also raised Nguyen's
case during informal talks in Malta, media reported.
Singapore has one of the world's toughest drug laws. Laws
enacted in 1975 stipulate death by hanging for anyone aged 18
or over convicted of carrying more than 15 grams (0.5 ounce) of
heroin, 30 grams (1.1 ounce) of cocaine, 500 grams (17.6
ounces) of cannabis or 250 grams (8.8 ounces) of
methamphetamines.
Amnesty International said in a 2004 report that about 420
people had been hanged in Singapore since 1991, mostly for drug
trafficking, giving the city-state of 4.2 million people the
highest execution rate in the world relative to population.
(Additional reporting by Michael Perry in Sydney)
