The first Australian to be executed in 12 years
Sydney Morning Herald
By Steve Butcher and Connie Levett in Singapore
December 2, 2005
Page 1 of 2
NGUYEN TUONG VAN could only hold his mother's hand in his final hours. They were not allowed to hug or kiss.
Nguyen's mother, Kim, and his twin brother, Khoa, were granted special permission to touch him as they said their last goodbyes yesterday at Singapore's Changi prison, but he had to face the end without them.
He was not completely alone, however. In his hands he held a string of rosary beads and by his side, comforting him, were the prison's priest and the guards. He prayed and was at peace with his world, only saddened that he was leaving behind people who would be heartbroken by his death at 9am Sydney time
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/the-first-australian-to-be-executed-in-12-years/2005/12/02/1133422056252.htmlA few more articles on the subject
When they were two little boys
THEY are the twin sons of a refugee. One had a troubled path to adulthood; the other led a blameless life until committing a terrible crime to aid his brother. Steve Butcher profiles a short life.
THE teenager had tramped around the shops and small businesses near his home, pestering the owners for an after-school job. It took a lot of asking and a lot of walking, but eventually he found something: sweeping crumbs and cleaning ovens at a bakery.
It wasn't much but it was good enough, and when he rode home at the end of his first week, in 1996, the 15-year-old had already spent a large chunk of his first pay packet. Strapped to the back of his bicycle was a pair of identical boxes.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/when-they-were-two-little-boys/2005/12/01/1133422052414.htmlLBN mods: The first two articles were taken from today's Sydney Morning Herald and were released about two to three hours ago when the SMH updated its online website to include today's news stories. Therefore they do comply with LBN regulations as far as I can see
The third article is from a few days ago but I'm including it here because it provides some interesting background in the case
The final payment
How a polite but naive young man wound up as a bumbling mule for a drug syndicate. Julie-Anne Davies reports.
As far as confessions go, Nguyen Tuong Van’s couldn’t have been more frank. The 25-year-old Melbourne man knew the game was up as soon as the metal detector went off at Singapore’s Changi Airport. In an instant, he morphed from first-time international drug trafficker back into the polite, respectful young man his mother had raised him to be. When the Singapore police officer asked Van (as he prefers to be called) to put his hands against the wall to be searched, the then 22-year-old replied: “No need, I will get it for you.” He lifted his shirt and tore the packet of white powder from his back and handed it to the officer. “He asked me what that was and I replied to him, ‘It’s heroin, sir’.”
Those words pretty well sum up the tone of Van’s police statement, which 16 months later was tendered in evidence to the Singapore High Court. Reading through it now, it is impossible not to conclude that the hopelessly naive and immature Van was the perfect patsy. He was desperate to make fast money but unlike most of the other suckers, the cash wasn’t for him. Van wasn’t greedy or trying to feed a drug habit but one thing seems clear, his overdeveloped sense of responsibility for his identical twin Khoa has landed him on death row.
http://bulletin.ninemsn.com.au/bulletin/site/articleIDs/437E1BEF1E558EA8CA2570BF006CD42F
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