More on Nguyen's situation

Victorian man Ngyuen Tuong Van is on death row in Singapore over a drug smuggling conviction.

ABC News Online - Friday, October 21, 2005. 8:37pm (AEST):

Melbourne man to be hanged

Melbourne man Nguyen Tuong Van, 25, lost his final bid to be spared from execution when the Singaporean Government today rejected a plea from the Australian Government for clemency.

He was convicted for smuggling a large quantity of heroin into Singapore in December 2002.

At the time of his arrest he was en route to Australia after travelling to Vietnam.

He could now be executed within a week.

Mr Nguyen's lawyers will now seek to lobby international figures, including the Pope, in a last-ditch bid to free their client.

Mr Nguyen's Melbourne-based lawyer Lex Lasry QC says it is devastating news.

"We're obviously extremely disappointed with the news and the fact that the Singapore Government have decided to execute our client," he said.

"Indeed it's news that's devastating for him and for his family."

Prime Minister John Howard says Singapore's confirmation of the death sentence for Nguyen is a terrible reminder of the tough drug laws in Asia.

Mr Howard says the Australian Government has done all it could.

"It's a sad thing for his family, it is a terrible reminder of the consequences of taking and dealing in drugs in Asian countries," he said.

"It was made very clear to me when I saw the Singapore Prime Minister at the beginning of this year, when I raised this matter in my meeting with him that the Singaporeans took a very tough line on drugs."

Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer says all avenues of appeal have been tested and Nguyen Tuong Van now faces death by hanging.

"We've appealed for clemency," he said.

"The Governor-General has [appealed] to the President of Singapore, the Prime Minister has to the President, and quite recently when I met with the Singapore Foreign Minister in Perth, I repeated our plea for clemency.

Mr Downer says he is saddened by the news.

"There's no question that due process has been followed here, it has," he said.

"Singapore does have a mandatory death sentence for trafficking in heroin and they're applying it which I'm afraid doesn't come as a great surprise to us. I've been pessimistic about this case for some time we've done everything we can to plead for his life."

Mr Lasry says Mr Nguyen's family is in Singapore.