SINGAPORE authorities were due to hang Hong Kong man Daniel Chan Chi-pun this morning, despite a last-minute intervention by Governor Chris Patten.
Sources said Chan, 38, given a surprise reprieve on the eve of his execution, originally scheduled for November 25, was unlikely to get another reprieve.
Chan's Singapore defence lawyer, Spencer Gwee, said last night: 'I believe the die is cast.' Mr Patten, in Singapore for a two-day visit, raised Chan's case during a meeting with Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong.
'I noted that the Hong Kong Government had associated itself with the appeal for clemency lodged by the British Government and in turn endorsed by the European Union,' he said.
Mr Patten did not disclose the response nor condemn the scheduled hanging.
The drug trafficker turned devout Christian was 'very happy' as he spent his last day with his father, 70, wife, 38 and blind son, seven, at Changi prison.
