Nguyen's family arrives home

The family of executed drug trafficker Van Nguyen has returned to Melbourne with his body.

Nguyen's family was whisked away on arriving at Melbourne airport and did not come through the public arrivals gate.

They had been in Singapore to be with Nguyen in the days leading up to his execution.

The 25-year-old was hanged in Singapore of Friday for trying to smuggle heroin out of Cambodia to Australia in 2002.

A funeral service for him is to be held at Melbourne's St Patrick's Cathedral later this week.

Lawyer Lex Lasry says Nguyen's mother Kim and brother Khoa endured a media crush at Singapore airport and he was not prepared to put them through that again.

He says Mrs Nguyen is relieved to be home.

"She is going to move forward from here, she takes great inspiration and strength from her son and so does Van's brother," Mr Lasry said.

Mr Lasry says he hopes Nguyen remains a signpost for continued opposition to the death penalty.

Mr Lasry is urging the Australian Government to take up a lead role in a regional campaign against the death penalty.

He says the Australian Government is well-placed to encourage countries like Singapore to embrace human rights.

"What I think though is that given those ties and given Australia's position, Australia is in a great position to take a human rights lead in this region and to make the argument to the other countries," Mr Lasry said.

"The rational intellectual legal argument if you like as to why the death penalty simply can no longer be tolerated."

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Sun, 4 December 2005
Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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Copyright: 2005 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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