KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Eight Hong Kong citizens were hanged at dawn Wednesday in the nation's largest mass execution for drug offenses.
Guards led six men to the gallows at the prison in the northern town of Taiping, while a man and the first foreign woman to be hanged in Malaysia met the same fate in Kajang Prison on the outskirts of the capital, officials said.
Attorney Karpal Singh, whose last-ditch attempt to gain a reprieve from the Supreme Court failed, said he 'was disappointed' King Azlan Shah did not spare the lives of the condemned prisoners.
'I stayed up all night hoping for a response' from the monarch, said Singh, after desperate relatives turned to Azlan in a petition for clemency.
The king has the constitutional power to grant a pardon and reduce death sentences to life imprisonment.
In London, the human rights organization Amnesty International condemned the hangings as 'a useless punishment which fails to stop drug trafficking.'
All eight Hong Kong nationals were arrested at Bayan Lepas International Airport on the resort island of Penang in October 1982 after customs officials found 28 pounds of heroin concealed in the bottom of five suitcases. Prosecutors said the group was headed for Brussels, Belgium.
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad rejected pleas for clemency from British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and British High Commissioner Nicholas Spreckley. A separate appeal from Amnesty International also was dismissed.
'Our first thoughts are for the families of those executed, and we extend to them our deepest sympathy,' said John Jenkins, first secretary of the British High Commission. 'We had hoped that our representations to the Malaysian authorities would succeed and are saddened that they have not done so.'
The government has rejected all appeals for pardons since introducing the death sentence for drug-related offenses 15 years ago.
Au King Kor, 32, and Chan Yiu Tim, 33, both transport workers, driver Yuen Kwok Kwan, 28, waiter Li Chi Ping, 32, company supervisor Ip Tak Ming, 36, and insurance company director Ng Yiu Kwok were hanged in Taiping.
Car dealer Chow Sing, 42, and Hau Tsui Ling, 32, the only woman in the group, were exected in Kajang Prison. Magistrate Sabirin Jaafar witnessed the simultaneous hanging of Chow and Hau in two chambers.
Before their deaths, Ng and Li decided to donate their corneas to the blind. Ashe Windham, head of the consular section for the British High Commission, said, 'They wanted some good to come out of their terrible situation.'
Tuesday, the eight were reunited with their families for the last time and met with clergymen after all hope for a reprieve was dashed.
Singh told the Supreme Court that the Board of Pardons acted unconstitutionally March 29 in not allowing legal representation for the eight in deciding against their appeal. But the justices said they had no authority to review the decision by the governor of Penang rejecting the appeals.
Ninety-eight people, including 27 foreigners, have been hanged since the introduction of the mandatory death sentence for possession of more than half an ounce of heroin or morphine, two pounds of opium or 6.4 ounces of marijuana.
Two Australians, Kevin Barlow and Brian Chambers, were hanged in 1986 in a case that evoked international criticism. Derrick Gregory of Britain was hanged in July.
