The scheduled hanging next week of Australian heroin smuggler Nguyen Tuong Van has focused the spotlight on Singapore's reputation as a country with the world's highest execution rate.
The label by human-rights watchdog Amnesty International does not sit well with the Singaporean government.
Civil rights groups say the death penalty is an anachronism for a modern nation, but Singapore officials have been unswayed by appeals to stop the execution.
Nguyen, who is of Vietnamese origin, is scheduled to be hanged at Changi prison on Dec. 2 after Singapore President S.R. Nathan rejected appeals for clemency.
The baby-faced 25-year-old was caught at Changi Airport in 2002 while in transit between Australia and Cambodia with 400 grams of heroin, a volume Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo said would have supplied more than 26,000 doses to drug addicts.
"There is no precedent that Singapore officials will change their mind at this stage," said Sinapan Samydorai, head of the Singapore civil-rights group Think Centre, which is fighting an uphill battle to abolish capital punishment in the city-state.
"Frankly, I don't think Nguyen has a chance at this point."
Samydorai said a campaign led by Australian Prime Minister John Howard to save the life of Nguyen came too late and was not forceful enough because of strong trade and business ties between the two countries.
"I think the message here is that business interests can override the life of an individual. Nguyen will be sacrificed on the altar of trade and profit," Samydorai said.
Singapore does not publish execution figures and maintains that the death penalty is a forceful deterrent to would-be criminals.
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