Singapore's hangman has held out the hope of a last-minute reprieve for Australian drug trafficker Nguyen Tuong Van.
But Darshan Singh says if he is called on to execute 25-year-old Nguyen at dawn on Friday, he will do it quickly and efficiently.
Singh, 74, has carried out hundreds of executions in a career spanning 48 years, but it has not been confirmed that he will execute Nguyen, sentenced to death after being caught at Singapore airport in 2002 with nearly 400 grams of heroin.
Singh said on Sunday he had been sacked by prison authorities and would not be required for any more executions. But Singapore's prison department said Singh had not been sacked and was still a contract officer.
If he does perform the execution, Singh says that with his experience he can ensure the condemned man would be hanged efficiently, whereas an inexperienced hangman could make mistakes and prolong Nguyen's suffering.
"With me, they (the prisoners) don't struggle. I know the real way. If it's a raw guy, they will struggle like chickens, like fish out of the water," Singh told Reuters at his spacious four-bedroom apartment.
If Nguyen's execution goes ahead on Friday, as planned, it will probably follow Singh's usual routine.
The prisoner is weighed a day before the execution, and hanging takes place at 6am (0900 AEDT), before the sun has risen. The death is witnessed by as many as seven people, including the prison superintendent, a coroner, a doctor and a priest - but not by the prisoner's family.
In execution by hanging, the person dies when the spinal cord snaps as they fall through the trapdoor, and not by asphyxiation. The heart usually stops beating 15 to 20 minutes later.
Only six people sentenced to death in Singapore have been spared execution since 1965, including two women convicted of drug trafficking and four men convicted of murder.
Singh said there could be a glimmer of hope for Nguyen, whom he has not met.
"Maybe they may say at the eleventh hour ... they may give him a life sentence, it's still possible," he said.
Singh, who lives in public housing in a leafy suburb of western Singapore, casually chatted about the death penalty, occasionally breaking off to joke with his wife or play with his 13-month-old granddaughter.
The father of three supports the government's anti-drug laws.
"You are talking about the life of one drug trafficker. But what about the thousands who suffer because of the drugs? They become complete failures, their lives are ruined," he said.
Under Singapore's tough laws, anyone aged 18 or over who is convicted of carrying more than 15 grams of heroin receives a mandatory death sentence.
Singh, who began his career as a junior prison officer when he was 25, said Singapore should stick to hanging rather than switching to other means of execution such as lethal injection.
"With hanging, many of them can still do good by donating their organs. Part of them will continue to live on. But with lethal injection, none of their organs can be used," Singh said.
A Sikh who converted to the Muslim faith after marrying a Malay, Singh said the most difficult part of his job was when he had to hang prisoners whom he had befriended.
Working as a prison officer with condemned prisoners in the 1960s, Singh said he developed close relationships with some of them but still had to perform the deed.
"They became my friends and wanted me to hang them. One of the fellows even asked me to give him his final haircut."
Activists campaigning against the death penalty in Singapore say that executions are shrouded in secrecy. There is little public debate and no opinion polls published to show how Singaporeans feel about the issue.
Amnesty International said in a 2004 report that about 420 people had been hanged in Singapore since 1991, mostly for drug trafficking, giving the island nation of 4.2 million people the highest execution rate in the world relative to population.
Australia has repeatedly pleaded for clemency for Nguyen on the grounds that he had cooperated with the authorities and could serve as a witness in future drug cases.
But Singapore has rejected all appeals, saying Nguyen had been caught with enough heroin for 26,000 doses and that Singapore must not be used as a transit for illicit drugs.
Murderers and drug-traffickers deserve to die, Singh said, and their punishment is a means of "complete rehabilitation".
"I'm changing their character to a different one because I believe in rebirth and they will be better men next time."
Front page
RSS Feed