Pubdate: Fri, 25 Nov 2005 Source: Age, The (Australia) Copyright: 2005 The Age Company Ltd Contact: http://www.theage.com.au/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5 Author: Connie Levett Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Death+Penalty (Death Penalty) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) HARD MAN OF VICTORIA FAILS TO SOFTEN HEARTS IT WAS news they had received before, but that didn't make it any easier to hear: the Singapore Government sees no further grounds to review Nguyen Tuong Van's death sentence. After a hastily arranged meeting with senior minister Ho Peng Kee in Singapore yesterday, Victorian Attorney-General Rob Hulls had lunch with Nguyen's mother Kim and twin brother Khoa. But he was unable to deliver them much hope. Mr Hulls said it was one of the toughest meetings he'd had, "talking to a mother who knows in all likelihood her son is going to be executed in just over a week". "She is in absolute distress and disbelief," he said. "The son who told her he was going on a holiday and never came home has been in jail in Singapore ever since." Mr Hulls came to Singapore with a letter from Victorian Premier Steve Bracks for Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Mr Lee was due to leave yesterday for the Commonwealth heads of government talks in Malta, and the meeting fell to Professor Ho, a lower-tier minister with the impressive title Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs, but no great influence in government. Professor Ho promised to deliver the letter to Mr Lee urgently. But in a statement issued last night, he said while Singapore recognised that many Australians were disappointed with its decision, it also had to protect the interests of its citizens. He said the issue was the right of a sovereign state to apply its laws to people who had committed crimes within its jurisdiction. Mr Hulls said he "made it very clear to the minister the mandatory death penalty is a very brutal way of ending a young life". He said Professor Ho made comments that showed he understood the close relations between Singapore and Australia. During his later meeting with a sometimes teary Mrs Nguyen, Mr Hulls said she spoke warmly of how her son had grown spiritually and emotionally in prison. Mr Hulls relayed how Nguyen was "looked up to by other inmates as somebody who is friendly, with a sense of humour and assists other prisoners". "He has grown in spirit," Mr Hulls said. "This is a person who is ripe for rehabilitation and that is why the mandatory death penalty is so inappropriate." The imprisonment has also had a great impact on Khoa. "Khoa opened up and was telling me about his relationship with his brother," Mr Hulls said. "He was telling me how he has changed dramatically since his brother has been in jail and how (Van) had given him a lot of strength and turned him around in direction." Khoa now wants to undertake tertiary studies. Mr Hulls said the Victorian Government was not trying to belittle Nguyen's crime, one that would carry a jail term of up to 25 years here. But it was important to convey its vehement opposition to the death penalty. - ---