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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.
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) | 
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