Nguyen Tuong Van, an Australian drug trafficker who had been sentenced to death by a Singapore court in March last year, was hanged Friday morning at Changi Prison in the city state, according to a statement by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Nguyen, 25, was arrested in December 2002 at Changi Airport and charged with smuggling 396 grams of pure heroin from Cambodia to Australia via Singapore.

"The Misuse of Drugs Act provides that the death penalty is mandatory if the amount of diamorphine or pure heroin imported exceeds 15g," the statement said.

It added that the amount of heroin smuggled by Nguyen is enough to supply 26,000 doses to drug addicts with an estimated street value of 1.3 million Singapore dollars (about 769,000 US dollars).

Nguyen was allowed, on an exception basis, to hold hands with his mother and brother during a visit a day before his execution.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said Thursday that Singapore does not allow "contact" visits between prisoners and family members like many jurisdictions that authorize capital punishment.

The decision of allowing limited physical contact in Nguyen's case was made after carefully considering the request that Australian Prime Minister John Howard had made to his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting held in Malta last week, and the advice of the Prisons Department, according to MFA.

Singapore had decided not to grant Nguyen clemency despite several appeals raised by Nguyen himself, his family as well as Australian leaders, officials and citizens.

Source: Xinhua