From Life in Melbourne to Death in Singapore
A 25 year old man from Melbourne, Nguyen Tuong-Van was arrested in December, 2002 after being stopped at Changi whilst running to catch a Qantas flight to Melbourne. He was caught with 396 grams of heroin strapped to his body and in his hand luggage. Tuong-Van was then charged and sentenced to death last year. He is expected to be hanged within a month.
The details of the appeals and pleas for clemency are reported elsewhere in the links below.
My take on all this is that a desperate man would do desperate things. Tuong-Van was enticed to do a drug-run that would have seen him earned $25,000 to repay a debt owed by his twin brother Khoa.
Despite the death sentences for drug-trafficking in most of SE Asia, there will continue to be cases like this because there will always be desperate ppl easily exploited by the drug syndicates. It’s a sad state of affairs. The drug mules who are caught are sometimes reluctant to give evidence out of concern for the safety of their familes, and then there are those who are executed before full information can be gathered.
To the drug syndicates, it’s a game of percentages. They know that some of their drug runners would be caught and it’s of no concern to them. The profit margins are high enough to cover their losses. So in the end, who does the law really punishes? And what does it really achieve?
Lawyer’s plea to president over Australian execution - World - smh.com.au
Letters from death row - World - smh.com.au
Lawyer pleads for Aussie’s life - Top stories - Breaking News 24/7 - NEWS.com.au
Canberra calls in a favour on Nguyen - Top stories - Breaking News 24/7 - NEWS.com.au
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7 Responses to “From Life in Melbourne to Death in Singapore”
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Oct 27 2005 / 12:50 pm
he knew the consequences and took a calculated risk which backfired. there are better ways to find $25k in a hurry that won’t get you executed. The moral of the story is don’t fall for the quick fix solution.
What he needs to do now is turn himself into a young caucasian female, go hysterical and claim innocence and ignorance. That way he’ll be very popular back home but unfortunately he will still get hanged. -
Oct 27 2005 / 12:54 pm
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Oct 27 2005 / 5:10 pm
marcus I haven got the time to try out the trackback thing yet
but you have got to see the pic in my latest entry!!Caught red-handed literally!
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Oct 27 2005 / 9:04 pm
Unfortunately, I dun sympathize with this man, I kinda agree with ryu here, there are so many desperate people out there, who will never resort to trafficking drugs to earn a quick buck. I think he deserves to be hanged, not being mean, but drugs kill … many, many, many more … and he was helping with the killing …
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Oct 27 2005 / 10:47 pm
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Nov 14 2008 / 12:16 pm
Hello Mooiness
Read some other things on your page, felt I could answer your question of “It is interesting in comparison - what happened to all those ppl who jumped up and down about the death penalty for Nguyen Tuong Van in Singapore? And before him, the ppl who protested about Schapelle Corby?”.
What happened, was the PRESS beat up the other instances, and are ignoring the present case, purely and simply because they mean to sell more advertising.
MOST people in Australia didn’t protest about S. Corby and co. Most people have their own opinion about current affairs and no-one hears it, as I am sure you know. Some few people shout aloud their opinions, and occasionally the press pick ONE shouting group to use as a “Cause” to attract attention to their radio station/TV channel/newspaper.Case in point are the Aussie drug dealers in Bali that are going to be executed. LOTS of people have an opinion, there are a lot of people who feel the death penalty is wrong in ANY case, even wanted those recently executed terrorists to be offered a prison sentence instead and asked the Aussie government to help secure it, all because of principle, and did the world hear much if anything about this?. No. Because it wouldn’t sell newspapers.
Mate, you are short changing your people, the kindly Aussies, if you think they wouldn’t seek to help this young guy. The PRESS thinks the average aussie is racist and doesn’t care, but , the press is a bunch of people who fear to actually WORK for a living.
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[...] It is interesting in comparison - what happened to all those ppl who jumped up and down about the death penalty for Nguyen Tuong Van in Singapore? And before him, the ppl who protested about Schapelle Corby? [...]