Letter to PM Howard from Stuart Highway in Berrimah jail Darwin re Nguyen Tuong Van on death row in Changi Prison Singapore.As an example now please consider writing a card to the prisoner from Melbourne awaiting murder by the Singapore State. Thanks.
Condemned Prisoner C856 Nguyen Tuong Van Cluster Registry, Changi Prison 982 Upper Changi Road Singapore 507709.
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Letter to PM re: Nguyen Tuong Van
Written by Stuart Highway in Darwin Prison on Friday the 11th November 2005
Dear Prime Minister
I am writing to you in this eleventh hour in the hope that you will intervene to save the life of Australian citizen Nguyen Tuong Van.
As Prime Minister of Australia you are in a position of power to influence the Singapore Government to stay his execution.
Australia and Singapore are allies and have strong military and trade links. You could use these to work out a deal whereby Nguyen Tuong Van could be brought home to serve out a life sentence in Melbourne, close to his family.
The death penalty is abhorrent. I once read of an American boy of 16 or so who murdered both his parents after a fierce argument on a camping trip. It was probably his youth that saved him from the death penalty. After serving years in prison he was released and studied medicine. He became a doctor. He devoted the rest of his life to helping the underprivileged and disadvantaged. He became a model citizen.
Similarly, I believe Nguyen Tuong Van deserves to live.
Please consider this option.
Yours Sincerely
Stuart Highway
Letter to Nguyen Tuong Van
Written by Stuart Highway in Darwin Prison on Thursday the 10th November 2005
Dear Nguyen Tuong Van
I am a member of a Darwin-based drug law reform organisation called Network Against Prohibition. Since March 2002 we have been campaigning for the repeal of all laws against drugs.
Our goal is the re-legalisation of all drugs which are currently illicit, in order to reduce to a minimum drug-related harm in communities worldwide. We believe that far more harm is done to drug users and society in general by the drug laws than by the drugs themselves.
I am currently serving a 3 month sentence for a conviction of Unlawfully Damage Property as a result of damage done to police vehicles at one of our community rallies in Darwin in October 2002.
I have seen the media coverage of the campaign to save you from execution and seen your mother plead for your life to be spared.
I feel that the intervention of powerful figures such as John Howard could result in you being brought back home to serve a life sentence in Melbourne, leaving the way open for other options. However, the political will has been lacking.
Therefore, I'm going to write to John Howard asking him to make further, more serious representations to the Singapore Government on your behalf. As you are an Australian citizen that's the least he could do.
As well, I extend a hand of solidarity, as one prisoner of the war on drugs (POWD) to another, through the bars and across the sea.
Solidarity, brother.
Stuart Highway
You can send messages of solidarity and support to Nguyen Tuong Van at the following address:
Condemned Prisoner C856 Nguyen Tuong Van
Cluster Registry, Changi Prison
982 Upper Changi Road
Singapore 507709
NAPT.org
By Napatista posted 21 November 05
Related:
Please show clemency
As you read this email 25-year old Melbourne man Van Tuong Nguyen is sitting in a jail cell in Singapore awaiting execution for drug trafficking.
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Here come de Judge - Time to Leave [266]
There have always been examples of rulings and interpretations that have supported the saying "The law is an ass". This is increasingly the case, because even the best intentioned judges are now facing an avalanche of new technologies and social change. But, it is no good making excuses for the judiciary and continuing to accept their strange interpretations. We must recognise that not only judges but the whole legal system will struggle more and more. In the end the whole system will become a farce. This is the way empires end.
