bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

SCMP Reporter

THE friends and family of doomed drug smuggler Tong Ching-man will make a last-ditch plea today to save her from the gallows in Singapore.

  Tong, 24, and two other convicted drug smugglers from Hong Kong are being held in Changi Prison. Unless there is a reprieve they will be hanged tomorrow.

  'They are scheduled to be executed at 6 am on Friday,' prison spokesman Yim Pui-fun said.

  Ten members of Tong's family, including her cousin Iris Tong Pik-wan, arrived in Singapore yesterday to petition President Ong Teng Cheong and appeal for clemency.

  In Hong Kong, her closest friend, Man Yuen-fun, and members of Amnesty International will today take a letter of protest to the Singapore Commmission.

  Since 1976, 106 drug traffickers have been executed in Singapore and reprieves are seldom granted. But the Tong family hopes that one case of clemency in 1992 will be enough to save Tong.

  A Singapore woman, Shum Ah-choi, was convicted in 1985 of drug trafficking. The Singapore Government granted her an amnesty in 1992 after re-considering her case, saying she had been a scapegoat.

    'This is the only hope we have left to save her,' a relative said.

   'We believe she was part of a bigger plan and was being used in the same way. She is so young.'    Singapore law forbids the death penalty for those under 18.

   Tong had just turned 18 when she was arrested at Singapore airport in 1988 wearing a vest containing 24 blocks of heroin worth $10 million.

  Her companion Lam Cheuk-wang, 25, was wearing a similar vest. He is also due to be executed with her tomorrow.

  The third condemned Hong Kong resident, Poon Yuen-chung, 22, was arrested in 1991 when she was 18. She and her friend Lam Hoi-ka, then only 17, denied they knew anything about the $44 million worth of heroin hidden in their suitcases. Lam was sentenced to life imprisonment.

    But while those outside the prison try to save her, Tong has accepted her fate.

  In letters to her close friend Ms Man, Tong said: 'The Holy Spirit is now filling up my heart. God will accompany me and I now understand God's plan.'   Ms Man said: 'The last time I saw her she was very stable, because she became a Christian three years ago.'   'She is very brave. The last time I spoke to her she wouldn't cry when I saw her because she did not want to upset me or to make me cry. She was more concerned by how I felt than what was happening to her.'    Drug trafficking carries a mandatory death sentence in Singapore.

   Anyone caught carrying more than 15 grams of heroin is considered a trafficker.

 British High Commission spokesman Colin Lane said he would visit Changi Prison today to offer any assistance.

  'I will be there to offer support to them,' Mr Lane said.

  'Great Britain does not support or condone the death penalty, so this can only be seen as a very tragic, tragic event.' 



Death-row woman's final hope