Thursday, December 01, 2005

Singapore leader: Execution to go ahead

Singapore will execute convicted Australian drug smuggler Nguyen Tuong Van, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said, dismissing calls for the sentence to be commuted.

This story has been circulating the media waves for weeks now, even though Nguyen was arrested back in 2002. Public outcry against the Singapore's tough penalties for drug smuggling have been filling opinion polls and blogs focusing on the one question, 'Does the punishment fit the crime?'

Does it? No, not really. Even though arguably the 400 grams of heroin Nguyen attempted to smuggle through a Singapore airport could have caused the deaths of many of the countries brightest drug addicts, fact is, Nguyen isn't a killer. (as far as we know) Now, before you all get up in arms and call me whatever it is pro-death penatly people call anti-death penalty people let me say this. I think Nguyen should be put to death. Here's why.

Before committing a crime in a foreign country, actually, before even visiting a foreign country you should introduce yourself to their laws and legal system. Things we take for granted in our country may not be a "freedom" or a "crime not punishable by hanging" in another. Singapore has a death penatly punishment for drug trafficing. Why should the punishment be different because Nguyen is Australian? Are Australian's above Singapore's laws? No.

And another thing I don't hear much about is, instead of the death penatly, what do the protestors want? Life in a Singapore prison? Yeah, that's much better.

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