Australian PM rules out personal plea for convicted drug smuggler

Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Friday he would not make a personal plea to the Singaporean government in order to save the life of a young Australian drug smuggler on death row.

The 25-year-old was caught in 2002 with 396 grams of heroin strapped to his body and in his hand luggage and faces execution in Singapore. He is likely to be hanged sometime this month.

Howard said he had done what he could to help Nguyen.

"I have already done everything I can do. If there are other opportunities that present themselves I will take advantage of those," he told Australia's Southern Cross Broadcasting radio.

"My personal views on this issue have been very strongly communicated to the government of Singapore," he said.

Howard said Nguyen should not be executed because he didn't have a previous criminal record and was smuggling the drugs to help his brother.

Meanwhile, Howard said the issue would not hurt Australia's relationship with Singapore.

"I don't think in the long term it will but the Singapore government is in no doubt about the strong feelings in Australia about this particular case," he said.

"There is a feeling in Australia that it is a particularly harsh thing that this man be put to death given the circumstances, " he said.

"There is no let up in our hostility to drug taking," he said

"There's a lot of sympathy in Australia for the tough drug laws in Asia as there are tough drug laws in Australia but there are some aspects of this case that do make it different," he said.

Source: Xinhua