THE distraught mother of a Melbourne man who could be executed in Singapore as early as Friday morning is refusing to give up the fight to save his life.

Kim Nguyen has instructed her son's lawyers to do whatever they can to stop his death by hanging.

Mrs Nguyen spoke briefly to Melbourne lawyer Lex Lasry, QC, yesterday in an emotional phone call after Singapore's President S.R. Nathan had refused to grant her son, Tuong Van Nguyen (right), a last-minute reprieve.

"She's very distressed, obviously, and wants to do anything she can to avoid her son being killed," Mr Lasry told The Sunday Age.

"I mean, she's reasonably composed, but she's very upset.

"She doesn't understand the justification for it, but then again, neither do I."

The family of death row inmates at Singapore's Changi Prison are informed of an execution date a day before the hanging is carried out. Executions are usually scheduled for Friday mornings.

If Nguyen's hanging proceeds, he will become the first Australian to be executed overseas since Sydney barman Michael McAuliffe was hanged in Malaysia in 1993.

Mr Lasry said Mrs Nguyen had visited her son in prison on Friday before being told he could face execution within days.

She was due back in Melbourne yesterday after being urged by her son to return home to be with family and friends.

Mr Lasry said Nguyen, 25, a sales executive, of Glen Waverley, showed little emotion when told of the Singaporean President's decision by an Australian consular officer.

"He accepted his fate, as he always knew it was a likely outcome.

"The tough part for him was he had become very friendly with another guy who was executed last Friday.

"He was just getting to grips with that when he was informed about his own situation, so that's pretty dramatic."

Mr Lasry said Nguyen's family and legal team planned to hold a press conference in Melbourne today to plead with the Singapore Government to spare his life.

"One of our main messages, is the Singapore Government has simply made a mistake. They haven't given enough weight to the constitutional provisions that provide for clemency in cases where people render assistance to the authorities."

Nguyen has been on death row since March last year, when he was given a mandatory death sentence after being caught carrying 396.2 grams of heroin.

He was arrested in December 2002 at Changi Airport on his way back to Melbourne from Cambodia, and found to have a packet of heroin strapped to his back and another in his hand luggage.

Nguyen, who had no previous criminal convictions, had been acting as a drug mule to help pay off his twin brother's legal debts of about $25,000 after being pressured by loan sharks.

He agreed to tell the Australian Federal Police everything he knew about the bosses of an international drug syndicate in the hope it would save his life.

Singapore's constitution states a pardon is possible if a co-accused gives evidence that leads to the conviction or arrest of a principal offender.

But its decision to proceed with Nguyen's execution prompted a scathing attack by Amnesty International yesterday, which said it was appalled and is appealing to Singapore to spare his life.

"This decision is also a blow to the growing number of people in Singapore and around the world who believe the country should instead be moving to abolish this cruel and inhuman punishment," Amnesty International spokesman Tim Goodwin said.

Nguyen Tuong Van Case Page & Petition

By Jane Bunce 23oct05

THE mother of a Melbourne man set to be executed in Singapore for smuggling heroin has pleaded with the Federal Government to save her son's life.

Time is running out for Nguyen Tuong Van, 25, who will be hanged within a month after the Singapore Government rejected his plea for clemency.

Kim Nguyen and her son's lawyers, Lex Lasry, QC, and Julian McMahon, called on the Federal Government today to pressure Singapore into reassessing Nguyen's clemency bid.

But Prime Minister John Howard said there was no realistic prospect that anything could be done to save Nguyen.

Ms Nguyen went into shock when she learned of her son's fate hours after visiting him in Changi Prison, Singapore, on Friday.

"I'm asking everyone to please help us, please the Government of Australia, help us," she said in Melbourne today after flying home for the comfort of friends and family.

"My son, he is a young boy. He is sorry in jail, very sorry. He has learned a lot.

"I know my son is scared about what is going to happen to him, and it hurts my heart."

Mr Lasry said today the family would receive two weeks notice of the impending execution, which was likely to take place within the next four weeks, and members would be able to visit Nguyen again.

Ms Nguyen said: "Every time I go to see Van, I tell him mummy loves him very much.

"My family is very close.

"He is my heart. If something happens to my son, my heart will be stopped."

Nguyen was sentenced to death by a Singapore court in March last year after being found guilty of smuggling almost 400g of heroin from Cambodia to Australia via Singapore.

The sales executive was caught in transit at Changi Airport in December 2002, bound for Melbourne.

He had 396g of heroin strapped to his back and in hand luggage.

Nguyen has said he was acting as a drug mule in a bid to pay off debts incurred by his twin brother.

Ms Nguyen said today that Nguyen's twin, Khoa, was distraught.

"He cries because he does not know how to help his brother," she said.

"He is very sad because they are close."

Mr Howard said he felt for Nguyen's family but there was no hope the execution would not go ahead.

"We have tried everything at a political and diplomatic level," he said.

"The answer came back on Friday that the execution would go ahead.

"I am very sorry to say that I don't think the prospects of anything changing are realistic."

A spokesman for Foreign Minister Alexander Downer meanwhile said the minister had not changed his position since Friday, when he said he did not believe other diplomatic channels were available to pursue.

But Mr Lasry said the legal team did not share the Australian Government's pessimism.

Pressure from the Australian Government could convince Singapore to take the unprecedented step of reconsidering its decision, he said.

"The diplomatic channels are open as long as our client is alive," Mr Lasry said.

"There is absolutely no reason why this decision can't be changed."

The legal team believed Singapore's decision to deny clemency was "very bad" and in opposition to its own constitution, because Nguyen was completely rehabilitated and had provided information to the Australian Federal Police, Mr Lasry said..

"He was entitled to expect clemency given his particular circumstances," he said.

Mr Lasry predicted Singapore's decision would affect its relationship with Australia, given that extensive diplomatic efforts had been ignored.

If Nguyen is hanged, he will be the first Australian to be executed overseas since Sydney barman Michael McAuliffe was hanged in Malaysia in 1993

The Howard Government will make a last-ditch bid to save a 24-year-old Melbourne man from the gallows after a Singapore court yesterday dismissed his final appeal against the death sentence.

Nguyen Tuong Van, a salesman from Mulgrave, faces a mandatory sentence of death by hanging for drug trafficking.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the Government would do everything possible to support Nguyen's last hope, a direct plea to Singapore President S. R. Nathan for clemency.

Only six such appeals have been granted in the past 25 years, and the process could take three to six months.

By comparison, the delivery of yesterday's judgement came brutally fast. It took Judge Lai Kew Chai two minutes in Singapore's Court of Appeal to inform Nguyen that "for the reasons given in the written judgement, the appeal is dismissed".

Nguyen has been on death row at the notorious Changi prison since March, when he was found guilty of smuggling 396.2 grams of heroin - 26 times the limit for the mandatory death penalty.

He was arrested at Changi airport on December 12, 2002, as he waited to board a Qantas flight to Melbourne after flying in from Cambodia.

Police found a packet of heroin strapped to his back and another in his hand luggage during a routine check. He told police he had carried the drugs on behalf of a Sydney-based drug syndicate in a bid to pay off legal fees owed by his twin brother.

His lawyers argued in the appeal that Nguyen's confessions were inadmissible, the integrity of the heroin presented as evidence was compromised, and Singapore's death penalty was unconstitutional.

Nguyen's Melbourne-based lawyer, Lex Lasry, QC, yesterday maintained that his client was not a hardened criminal. "There are particular aspects of the case and of our client that we think justify clemency being given to him in these circumstances," he told ABC radio from Singapore.

Yesterday's judgement came so quickly that Nguyen seemed stunned. Clean-shaven and wearing black heavy-rimmed glasses, Nguyen had entered the court at 9.55am dressed in a pale orange prison jumpsuit, his hands shackled behind his back. He was escorted by eight prison officers. He waited quietly in the dock, once looking back to his mother in the public gallery.

At 10.07, the three presiding judges, Chief Justice Yong Pung How, Judge of Appeal Chao Hick Tin and Judge Lai Kew Chai, entered the court. Two minutes later, it was over. Appeal dismissed. At 10.09, the judges stood and left the court.

Nguyen glanced down briefly but showed no emotion. In the public gallery, his mother Kim bowed her head and wept. She had spent time with her son in Changi prison on Monday and Tuesday. "He is good, he is always praying," she said before entering the court.

Ms Nguyen, a Vietnamese refugee, gave birth to the twin boys in a Thai refugee camp in 1980 before migrating to Australia.

Outside court, Mr Lasry confirmed that an appeal for clemency would go ahead. "There are significant mitigating factors and we will rely on the close relations between the Singapore and Australian governments," he said.

Australia's high commissioner to Singapore, Gary Quinlan, said there were "strong compassionate and very specific humanitarian concerns in this case".

Mr Downer said the clemency appeal process could take months. "That is the next step for us - to give our full support to the appeal to the President for clemency," he said.

The written judgement released after the hearing upheld the trial judge's findings. It said the statement given by Nguyen on the day of his arrest was admissible and a discrepancy between the initial and laboratory weighing of the drugs was possibly due to more professional equipment at the lab.

It found the mandatory death sentence as defined by Singapore's Misuse of Drugs Act "sufficiently discriminating to obviate any inhumanity in its operation, therefore it is constitutional".

An expert in Singaporean law, Monash University Professor Hoong Phun Lee, said the President would be guided by the nation's cabinet in making a decision on the clemency application.

"You would think the good diplomatic relationship between Australia and Singapore would work in his favour," he said. "But... it really depends on what is discussed behind cabinet walls."

Singapore has staunchly defended its use of the death penalty and maintained that foreigners are not to be exempted from its execution laws.

Amnesty International estimates that more than 400 people have been hanged in Singapore since 1991.

- with AAP