EXECUTING JUSTICE

I know this is going to sound heartless – and I do feel for a grieving mother – but there is so much emotional claptrap being written and spoken about heroin smuggler Tuong Van Nguyen.

One news story today refers to him as a “Melbourne drug mule”. No he wasn’t. Not a mule. More of an ass. He was a heroin smuggler. He was caught in Singapore with nearly half a kilo of smack which he had bought in Cambodia and then strapped it to his body. It was aimed at pathetic drug addicts here in Melbourne. Aimed at people who have robbed your place – and mine – to get the money to buy the junk.

And he knew the risks. He knew the risks. But he did it. And he got caught. And it seems he will die for it because Singapore enforces the death penalty for heroin traffickers. That’s their law. There are pictures of a despairing and disappointed Prime Minister John Howard at the APEC conference in South Korea yesterday after he appealed to the Singapore Prime Minister for clemency. He did not know that the execution date of December 2 had already been forwarded to Nguyen’s family. And that was poor political form. But why is the PM involved in this anyway? He doesn’t intercede, or try to intervene, for every Australian arrested and convicted for crimes committed overseas.

Would he show the same compassion for the Bali bombers who killed more than 200 people including 88 Australians? I mean, our Governments State and Federal say that they don’t support the death penalty. Therefore, Howard and Downer and Bracks and Hulls should plead for clemency for the Bali bombers. After all, a life is a life.

Our leaders don’t plead for the lives of other human beings who are sentenced to be executed in Thailand and China and the United States. I don’t get the double standard.

As I said the other day where is the condemned man’s twin brother? The man he supposedly did the drug run for to pay his legal bills.

The Sunday Age newspaper had, what I considered, a disgraceful, irresponsible, schmaltzy Page One lead story. It showed a picture of twins. Under the headline : “Little twins – one is on death row, the other in the depths of despair.”

And the story said: “The little twins smile happily for the camera, their young lives filled with endless possibilities. Today one of them sits on Death Row, the other is in hiding – filled with despair over the loving brother whose life looks certain to be cut short on the gallows in Singapore.

The baby photo of Nguyen Tuong Van, now 25, and his twin brother Khoa, was released by Nguyen’s lawyers. As I said:

What the story and the lawyers haven’t told is that the brother “so filled with despair” hasn’t been to Singapore to see his condemned twin.

What they didn’t tell you was that Nguyen’s brother is a vicious thug and heroin dealer. Months ago I said on the programme:
What is the Australian Foreign Affairs Minister, Alexander Downer, doing getting involved in the drug trafficker’s case in Singapore?

Why were taxpayer dollars being spent to give succour and support – through the Foreign Affairs Department and the Australian High Commission in Singapore to help a heroin smuggler.

I talked to Victorian Attorney General Rob Hulls who also said that the State government supported Downer in trying to get clemency for Nguyen from the Singapore president.

I said then and say again -- I have no sympathy for him. He knew what he was doing. He took the risk and failed –possibly fatally. Every drug dealer knows that in Thailand and Malaysia and Singapore “ Dada means death”. Drug smuggling means death. The signs are in every airport and in every airline magazine warning of the dire consequences if you are caught smuggling heroin.

I said months ago: I wonder just how much Downer and Hulls know about the Nguyen twins. I suspect not much.

Did they know that Khoa Dang Nguyen was a heroin dealer? Did they know that Khoa Nguyen spent nine months in jail for possessing and trafficking heroin?

There have been vague reports of Khoa Nguyen being charged with “affray”.

Did Downer and Hulls know what that “affray charge” really meant?

According to my sources there was a violent and bloody racist incident at Reservoir railway station. Six Islander youths were at the station. Nearly twenty young Asian males ran on the platform and assaulted them with chains, machetes and sticks. A 16-year -old boy was allegedly punched and kicked by Khoa Nguyen and two of his mates while the rest of the Asians attacked the remaining Islander boys.

Nguyen sliced the back of the teenager’s hamstring to stop him from running. He then held the machete in both hands swinging it at the victim’s neck. The victim put his arm up and the machete chopped part of his bone out. Nguyen took a second swing towards the boy's torso and the victim brought his leg up to protect himself causing similar devastating injuries.

This teenage victim had life saving surgery and will feel those injuries for the rest of his life.

This is a hoodlum family. I have no sympathy for them. If Nguyen hangs—he hangs.

Friday, November 18, 2005

©Copyright Derryn Hinch 2005