BEIJING, Nov. 29 -- Singapore has dismissed its only hangman, less than a week before the scheduled execution of a young Australian drug smuggler, whose case has provoked intense sympathy and indignation in his home country.

    Darshan Singh, 74, is said to have carried out more than 850 hangings in 46 years in Singapore. At dawn Friday this week he was due to end the life of Van Tuong Nguyen, 25, who was caught carrying 396 grams of heroin through the Singapore airport in 2002, The Times reported yesterday.

::::::	Singapore refuses to change laws for Nguyen clemency
::::::	Australia has no way to spare Nguyen's life: Howard

    But Singh has been relieved of his duties after his identity and a picture of him were published last month in The Australian newspaper.

   ¡°They called me a few days ago and said I don't have to hang Nguyen and that I don¡¯t have to work any more,¡± he said. ¡°They must be mad after seeing my picture in the newspapers.¡±

    He said he would miss the US$218 fee that he received for each hanging. According to The Australian, however, he had been attempting to retire for years but had been prevented by the lack of anyone willing to take over his duties.

    The paper quoted an unnamed friend of Singh, saying that he had attempted to train two successors but that both had recoiled when the moment came to operate the lever that opens the trapdoor.

    Media reports speculated that Singapore would have to import a foreign executioner, perhaps from Malaysia.

    Singh¡¯s sudden dismissal will also complicate the diplomatic confusion since Nguyen¡¯s final plea for clemency was rejected.

    John Howard, the Australian prime minister, made his fifth unsuccessful plea for clemency to his Singaporean counterpart, Lee Hsien Loong, in the margins of the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Malta.

    Nguyen is a first-time offender who was carrying heroin from Cambodia to Australia via Singapore to try to pay the debts of his twin brother. His lawyer expressed concern Sunday that an inexperienced hangman would make the execution even worse.

    An ¡°efficient¡± hanging is a skilled business, depending on the executioner¡¯s assessment of the prisoner¡¯s height and weight to determine the length of rope. Too long a ¡°drop¡± and the condemned will be decapitated; too short and death will occur by slow strangulation. Enditem

    (Source: Shenzhen Daily/Agencies)