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LATEST NEWS
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Family to visit Nguyen on death row
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 The mother and twin brother of convicted drug trafficker Van Nguyen are flying to Singapore this afternoon to visit him on death row.
Nguyen, 25, is scheduled to be executed in Singapore on December 2.
His mother Kim Nguyen and brother Khoa arrived at Melbourne Airport this afternoon and said goodbye to Nguyen's Melbourne lawyer Lex Lasry, QC.
The group embraced before the mother and son went through customs.
Nguyen was sentenced to hang for attempting to smuggle 400 grams of heroin in 2002.
He told police he was smuggling the drugs to Australia to help pay off a debt owed by his twin brother.
Mr Lasry has kept the campaign going to save Nguyen's life.
This morning he spoke to Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer and asked if the Federal Government will take his client's case to the International Court of Justice.
Mr Downer says he will examine the option but he does not believe the Singaporean Government will recognise the International Court's jurisdiction.
The federal Opposition believes there may be precedents which could allow Nguyen's case to be heard by the International Court.
Labor's Kevin Rudd says Singapore has already allowed the court to adjudicate on other matters.
"For example Singapore in recent times is engaged in a territorial matter with Malaysia, both are subjected to the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice," he said.
"So a course of argument there is that Singapore de facto has accepted the jurisdiction of the court in other matters and therefore could be argued to accept the jurisdiction of the court in this case as well."
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Van Nguyen's brother flies to Singapore to say goodbye
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PM - Monday, 21 November , 2005 18:10:00 - Reporter: Daniel Hoare
MARK COLVIN: The twin brother of the convicted Australian drug trafficker, Van Nguyen, has flown to Singapore to bid his brother a last farewell.
Khoa Nguyen flew out of Melbourne this afternoon with his mother Kim.
Van Nguyen is to be hanged in a Singaporean jail in less than a fortnight.
Khoa Nguyen will be reunited with his brother for the first time since Van Nguyen was arrested carrying heroin for a Sydney syndicate to help pay Khoa's debts.
Although the Singapore Government has set December the 2nd as the date for Van Nguyen's execution, his lawyers are still considering a final international legal bid to spare his life.
The Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says the Government is still committed to offering any assistance it can, but he's rejected the use of economic sanctions against Singapore.
Daniel Hoare has this report.
DANIEL HOARE: The time is slipping away for convicted drug trafficker Van Nguyen, with only 11 days left until his scheduled execution in a Singaporean jail. But his legal team have refused to concede that his execution is a fait accompli.
Van Nguyen's lawyer Lex Lasry is stepping up the pressure on the Federal Government, calling for the Prime Minister John Howard to refer the case to the UN's International Court of Justice. And he wants the leaders of the Commonwealth countries to put pressure on Singapore at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Malta this week.
But as Van Nguyen's fight for clemency continues here in Australia, his family face the harrowing task of paying him what seems to be a final visit before his scheduled hanging next Friday.
Van's twin brother, Khoa, wracked with guilt over his brother's predicament, flew out of Melbourne this afternoon with his mother Kim.
It was Khoa's financial difficulties which saw Van Nguyen attempt to smuggle nearly 400 grams of heroin through Singapore in 2002.
The Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, says that Lex Lasry's plan to take the case to the International Court of Justice looks unlikely to eventuate.
But he remains open-minded about any new legal avenues. He says the Singaporean Government would have to be convinced of the merits of deferring to the jurisdiction of the International Court.
ALEXANDER DOWNER: My own preliminary view is that it'd 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 and the chance of Singapore agreeing to a case being brought to the International Court of Justice are fairly obviously remote given the position they've taken on the execution of Van Nguyen.
But I, to be fair, I did say to Lex Lasry that I'd get my department's legal branch to go through some of the ideas that he put forward and we'll get back to him once we've done that and obviously time is of the essence here, so I hope I'll be able to get back to him in the next day or so.
DANIEL HOARE: Alexander Downer says that bringing the Van Nguyen case to the International Court would be, at best, a long shot.
ALEXANDER DOWNER: My advice is that, given Singapore doesn't accept the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice except in a very narrow range of areas which has got, which are not relevant to Van Nguyen's case, that you would have to get Singapore to agree to a case being brought before the International Court of Justice and that is remote in the extreme.
DANIEL HOARE: Opposition Foreign Affairs Spokesman, Kevin Rudd, says that regardless of the chances of success, the Federal Government is duty-bound to refer the case to the International Court of Justice.
KEVIN RUDD: I've spoken today with Mr Nguyen's lawyers. I've spoken also with international lawyers.
Obviously, there are legal complexities involved in this, but I believe Australia has a moral and legal responsibility to take this action in order to defend Mr Nguyen's interests and to seek to get the Singaporean Government to grant an act of clemency towards Mr Nguyen.
DANIEL HOARE: There's also been calls from some quarters that economic sanctions against Singapore would be the only effective way to convince its government to grant clemency to Van Nguyen.
But the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, has rejected that approach.
ALEXANDER DOWNER: Imposing economic sanctions would be a classic case of cutting off your nose to spite your face. It would damage Singapore, but it would damage Australia. It would damage our commercial interests and, in doing so, we would make no contribution whatsoever to helping save Van Nguyen, so it would be a lose-lose policy to pursue.
MARK COLVIN: The Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer.
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Nguyen brother 'feels guilty'
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THE lawyer for condemned Australian drug smuggler Van Tuong Nguyen said today his brother felt responsible for Nguyen's situation.
But Lex Lasry, QC, said Nguyen's brother Khoa should not have to carry a high level of guilt.
"He feels a level of responsibility and concern, but I want to be clear about this – whatever his role and whatever the motivations of our client were when this originally happened, Singapore is doing this to our client, not his brother," Mr Lasry said on ABC TV tonight.
"His brother must not be allowed to carry a high level of guilt on the basis of our client's execution. That's being done to him by the Government of Singapore."
Mr Lasry said the legal team had asked permission from authorities to witness the execution and was awaiting approval from the Singapore Government.
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Australia urged to save Nguyen
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 AUSTRALIA should lead an international protest to help save the life of condemned heroin smuggler Tuong Van Nguyen, Singapore's Opposition Leader says.
Nguyen is due to be executed on December 2, despite repeated protests by the Australian Government.
Secretary-General of the Singapore Democratic Party, Dr Chee Soon Juan, says Australia should appeal to other countries, including the United States, to put pressure on Singapore not to carry out its plan to hang Nguyen.
"I think Australia needs to approach the international community on this matter," he told ABC TV.
"It's just not a situation between Singapore and Australia, really it runs deeper and far wider than this.
"In the upcoming months and years you'll see a lot more people from around the world getting hanged for small time drug peddling in Singapore.
"I think every channel that is available right now ... every avenue that we can pursue, no stone must be left unturned and every country, every government that will listen to this call for justice and to put a stop to this insanity must be approached."
Nguyen was arrested in Singapore's Changi Airport in December 2002 while trying to board a flight to Australia with 396 grams of heroin strapped to his body and in his hand luggage.
He told police he had agreed to traffic drugs from Cambodia to Australia for a Sydney-based syndicate to help repay more than $30,000 in legal and other debts owed by his twin brother, Khoa.
Nguyen's lawyers have urged the Australian Government to take the case to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to stop his execution, but several senior ministers have downplayed the chances of success.
Dr Chee said he believed Australia should take Nguyen's case to the ICJ as soon as possible.
"If the Singapore government wants to play at the international level then I think it's got to have a rethink of some of these very obsolete, these very archaic laws that serve no good for anybody," he said.
"I believe in the longer term the Singapore government can be made to see that this kind of a policy, this kind of law, does not serve its interests, does not serve the interests of the wider international community."
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