Singapore says drug smuggler must hang

CANBERRA, Australia, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- Singapore has rejected final appeals from Canberra to spare a 25-year-old Australian drug smuggler sentenced to hang, saying its anti-drug laws must be upheld.

Foreign Minister George Yeo Yong-boon, in a letter to Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, said the decision by Singapore's president was "not taken lightly," The Australian reported Friday.

Yeo said his government had carefully considered all the facts in the case of Nguyen Tuong Van, an ethnic Vietnamese resident of Australia arrested in 2002 en route from Cambodia to Australia, and decided his death sentence must be carried out.

Downer had appealed for clemency for Nguyen in a letter to Yeo on Oct. 25.

Nguyen was convicted of transporting 396 grams of heroin, enough to supply more than 26,000 doses to drug addicts, Yeo said.

The case has drawn great attention and sympathy in Australia, especially as Nguyen, who was born in a Thai refugee camp, cooperated with Singapore police and admitted he had agreed to carry the drugs to help pay off his twin brother's debts.

If Nguyen's sentence is carried out next month as expected, he will be the first Australian to be hanged in Singapore.