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Execution 'carried out'
Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs has announced in a statement that Melbourne man Nguyen Tuong Van's death sentence has been carried out.
The brief statement, headed 'Execution of convicted drug trafficker', says: "Mr Nguyen failed in his appeals to the Court of Appeal and to the President for clemency.
"The sentence was carried out this morning at Changi Prison."
Lawyer Julian McMahon led Nguyen's brother Khoa and friends Bronwyn Lew and Kelly Ng out of the prison complex as the hanging was confirmed.
The group hugged each other and prison officials before leaving the Prison Link visitor centre.
Earlier, they stood together outside the prison at dawn as the deadline for Nguyen's execution passed.
Prison authorities then allowed them to enter the Prison Link centre and wait inside after they were surrounded by the media outside the prison.
A mass for Nguyen is expected to be held at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Singapore from 1pm.
It is believed Nguyen's casket will arrive before 2.30pm, when the mass proper will begin.
The mass will be led by Roman Catholic priests including Father Gregory Van Giang, who has been Nguyen's spiritual guide while in prison.
'A life taken too soon'
"Overwhelmingly my opposition to capital punishment is that the law is not infallible and it can make mistakes."
In Melbourne, Nguyen's supporters wept openly at a memorial service in Richmond this morning when church bells rang out to signify his execution in Singapore.
More than 500 supporters gathered at St Ignatius Church — adjacent to the primary school Nguyen and Khoa, attended — for a service led by Father Peter Norden. Some had been there since 6am.
Mourners spent the last five minutes before 9am at St Ignatius Church, Richmond in silence devoted to prayer.
At as clock struck nine, the church bells rang 25 times — signifying "25 years of a life taken too soon," Fr Norden said.
Many people inside and outside the church wept silently during the tolling of the bells.
Afterward, Fr Norden thanked the congregation and said a farewell prayer for Nguyen.
There were no vacant pews inside the church, with latecomers filling the back and sides of the church.
The memorial service began at 8.30am and finished about 8.50am.
Douglas Wood, the Australian hostage freed in Iraq earlier this year visited the church this morning. Wood has previously called for Nguyen's life to be spared.
Fr Norden told the congregation: "We come as friends, people who know him and know his family . . . all the parts in this tragedy."
He spoke of Nguyen's birth in a refugee camp in Cambodia, and paid tribute to the life he made for himself in Australia.
"Our prayers are with him this morning as he faces his fate with great courage and great faith."
Fr Norden also urged the congregation to strive to understand "the truth" about capital punishment.
"The Christian church will stand in opposition to the taking of human life because we believe in the dignity of all human life," he said.
"We know you cannot uphold the dignity of human life by taking the life of another."
Candelight vigils
Candlelight vigils were held around Australia this morning to mark Nguyen's passing.
Last night, as the sun sank on a scorching Melbourne day, about 1000 people carried flickering candles through the city down St Kilda Road to mark the last hours of Van Nguyen's life.
In Canberra, the Australian Greens will host a silent vigil outside Singapore's High Commission in Canberra to express their sorrow at Nguyen's death.
In Singapore, the newly-formed Singapore Anti-Death Penalty Committee said in a statement they "utterly deplore and condemn'' Nguyen's hanging as an "inhumane and barbaric punishment disproportionate to his crime''.
Members of the group, including artists and professionals, gathered at a 24-hour sidewalk cafe near Changi Prison.
They lit a candle atop an outdoor table on which pictures of Nguyen and messages of sympathy were displayed.
Candles were also left at the gates of the prison, where foreign and local journalists were camping out next to a television transmission dish.
- theage.com.au, with Steve Butcher in Singapore and AAP |
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人民®手工——芭比娃娃的旗袍 (2008-10-27) 人民 
发表于 2005-12-2 00:13
