Members of the European Parliament have urged the government of Singapore to stop next week's scheduled execution of a Australian drug smuggler.
Hartmut Nassauer, chairman of the delegation for relations with Southeast Asia
Nguyen Tuong Van (25), convicted of trying to smuggle 400 grams of heroin from Cambodia, is to be hanged on the second of December despite repeated pleas from Australia to reconsider clemency for the former salesman.
"The death penalty is firmly rejected in the European Parliament, but it is applied here. Clearly, we have different positions," Hartmut Nassauer, chairman of the delegation for relations with Southeast Asia, told reporters at a briefing in Singapore.
"We believe in universal democracy, rights and human law."
Singapore, which has the highest execution rate in the world relative to population according to a 2004 report by Amnesty International, has a compulsory death penalty for murder and drug trafficking.
Frithjof Schmidt, a member of the European Green Party, urged Canberra to take the case to an international court, a day after lawyers for Nguyen asked the Australian government to have the United Nations International Court of Justice hear the case.
"There should be a debate in an international court, given the gravity of the punishment for someone just transporting drugs," Mr Schmidt said, urging Singapore government to grant Nguyen clemency.