Candles of Hope for Aussie on Death Row

You can harp on all you like about how his sentence is far too harsh, but what right do we have to dictate to Singapore (or any other country for that matter) on how they should apply their laws; and why is an Australian life any more important than all the other nationalities who have been executed in South East Asia? I don’t remember a lot of Australians jumping up and down the last time someone was executed overseas.

Sorry, maybe I mixed it up with some other Australian citizen who got caught overseas and now is an ‘innocent pawn’

I know it’s semantics, but wasn’t it 400g?

I’m with Colsim on this one – I’m against the death penalty and 20 years in Changi prison would be a more fitting punishment. Said offender would probably have wished he’d been ‘put down’.

I think the underlying word is stupid

If my memory serves me correctly he was carrying the drugs to pay off a ‘legal debt; incurred by his brother. That ‘legal debt’ was his brothers bill after he was defending drug charges himself. He is far from the innocent and naive young man we’d all like to believe.

The law may be excessive but its their law. Having been to Singapore a few times I would have thought the multitude of travel warnings advising of death penalty laws, and the dirty big signs saying so as you arrive at Changi would have made it obvious to this chap. He’s no big fish but he was importing 3kg of heroin. Do the maths. 1g per hit = 3000 hits. Thats before its cut. If its cut to 50% purity thats 6000 hits.

Do the time, do the crime….sorry

If he was a stupid young kid and a genuinely upstanding young guy, he would hardly have been caught with however many KILOGRAMS of Heroin or whatever it was strapped to his body like a Bali tourist.

Aaah, RiotACT, Canberra’s home of compassion.

Yes he was doing something illegal, yes he no doubt knew the risks but yes also he is just a stupid young kid – who apparently is by all accounts a genuinely upstanding guy – motivated only by love of family. He’s no big fish so why not temper justice with mercy and “just” lock him up for 20 years.

Great more hippies trying to have some group hugs and make themselves feel better, about wearing leather shoes made in sweat shops. Whoopie lets all get together to cry about some idiot that smuggled drugs in to bomb carrying crazy country.

Besides the fact that they are all crazies over there.Why are people wasting their time? what about the tens of thousands of people killed in the earthquakes. You think their houses are just going to reappear now the earthquakes have gone. the plumping is just going to turn back on.

Why not focus on the greater good.

I like the fact that he was allegedly smuggling drugs to help his brother out of debt. I bet he now wishes he’d just gone down to the local bank/credit union to ask for a loan instead.

How many more times does this have to happen before dumb-arsed Aussies start to realise that some countries have really, really strict rules about drug trafficking?

Regardless of your take on drugs, this guy has gone into a country where death is the penalty for this kind of thing…. like anything with a risk you should be prepared to accept the consequences

“Moral equivalent of owning a liquor.”
I think I interpreted that differently to you Maelinar.
I was thinking of all the effects of alcoholism, drink driving and just general drinking.
Alcohol abuse is just as bad as drug abuse.
(I think I’m going to get flamed for that one!)

He broke the law of two countries and was perfectly content (if he had succeeded) to sell drugs to hapless Australians. AI-IMHO- are softheaded fools at best and cynical manipulators at worst IMHO. The law in Singapore is tough but fair – and unlike an island continent to the south of them, they are prepared to tough out any number of ‘humanitarian appeals’.

The moral equivalent to owning a liquor store ?

pah! – he was trafficking drugs, not selling cartons of VB to suspiciously young 16 year olds.

I have already stated my opinion on the death penalty, and I continue to firmly believe that no man should ever have the right to kill another, but in this case, the beauracracy has spoken.

He did the crime, he’s doing the time.

What he did was the moral equivalent of owning a liquor store.

Seems a bit rough to me.

If we were to remove all opinions of no consequence from this site it’d be a lot easier to run I grant you.

Sorry Nik, I got the impression you were voicing an opinion in one way or another, but if you weren’t I apoligise.

I think Jey is right though, it probably will turn into a discussion of that, even if I hadn’t posted my comment.

but it probably will

SGS, I have my opinion on this too. Without going into it one way or the other I posted the above just so those interested would know about it.

I don’t really think this thread needs to become a discussion of the pros and cons of other countries rights to the death penalty and/or right to exercise their own laws in their own country.

errr, he broke the law and the death penalty is the punishment…so be it, the less drug dealers the better in my view.