[Deathpenalty]death penalty news --- worldwide

[Joerg Sommer]

death penalty news

July 27, 2004


SINGAPORE / AUSTRALIA:

Singapore court defers judgment in Australian death penalty case

Singapore's appeals court reserved judgment Monday in a death-penalty case 
against an Australian convicted of smuggling heroin, saying it wants more 
time to look at evidence - especially why the drugs had different weights 
when tested by policeand a lab.

The decision by the three-judge panel to defer judgment against Nguyen 
Tuong Van - who faces the gallows if his appeal fails and the president 
doesn't grant clemency - means legal proceedings will be extended days or 
weeks in a case that dates from December 2002.

Chief Justice Yong Pung How told the court that the discrepancy in drug 
weight "has never happened before" in such a case.

"Admittedly it is only a marginal difference, but we have to be very 
careful," Yong said.

Nguyen, 23, a salesman from Melbourne, was arrested Dec. 12, 2002 at Changi 
International Airport in transit between Cambodia to Australia. During a 
routine passenger search, officers found Nguyen was carrying two packets of 
heroin, one taped to his back and a second in his bag.

Singapore has some of Asia's toughest anti-drug laws, like a mandatory 
death penalty for anyone convicted of possessing more than 15 grammes (0.53 
ounces) of pure heroin.

When weighed at the airport, Nguyen's two packets weighed 381.66 grammes 
(13.46 ounces) and 380.36 grammes (13.42 ounces), according to the written 
judgment of Judge Kan Ting Chui, who heard Nguyen's case.

But when weighed later at a lab, the packets weighed 361.64 grammes (12.76 
ounces) and 370.94 grams (13.08 ounces) respectively, according to the same 
written judgment, dated March 20, 2004.

"We will wait and see what happens," Lex Lasry, Nguyen's Australian 
attorney, said outside the courtroom.

(source: AP)