In the very early morning of December 2, 2005, my client Van Nguyen was hanged in Singapore’s Changi Prison. His offence? Carrying 396 grams of poorly concealed heroin from Phnom Penh. The drugs were detected during a stop-over in Singapore as Van tried to board a Qantas flight to Australia at Changi airport, gate C23. From that moment, he was a dead man walking. Changi carries a meaning of suffering for many.

After his arrest, many became involved in the cause. Why? Van was an Australian citizen, and we object when foreign governments claiming to be democratic kill Australians in the name of justice. The day before Van was hanged, Lee Hsien Loong, then Singapore’s prime minister, said the death penalty “is necessary”. Nonsense.

Kim Nguyen, the mother of Van Nguyen who was executed in Singapore, pictured in front of a photograph of her son in 2006.Credit: Jason South

At the time, Alexander Downer was Australia’s foreign minister. He assured me in a meeting about Van’s case in 2003 that the Australian public would not be interested in Van’s fate. Van was of Vietnamese origin, the son of a refugee and a small-time drug mule. Downer was wrong.

Many Australians took the case to heart. People still tell me they remember where they were on the day Van was executed. Veteran journalist Jana Wendt told me she was in a taxi in Sydney when the driver said something like, “I suppose they have killed that young boy by now.” She cried then, and she again shed a tear later telling me the story. People nearby wondered what I had done to upset such a beautiful and famous woman.

Van Nguyen,........

© Brisbane Times