Barring what Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer describes as “a miracle,” 25-year-old Nguyen will be led to the Changi Prison gallows at dawn Friday for drug trafficking.

With his death, St. Ignatius Church in Melbourne will ring its bells 25 times to mark the years of Nguyen’s life since his birth in a transit camp in Thailand after his mother fled Vietnam in 1980.

Since every plea for reconsideration has been rejected by Singapore and details of executions from the prison’s department are few, only defense lawyers with experience in the myriad of death penalty cases are able to talk about what lies ahead for Nguyen, whose trafficking offense was the only legal blemish in his life.

Compulsory death penalty

Subhas Anandan, one of the city-state’s most prominent lawyers, who has handled more than 50 death row cases, said the condemned are entitled to “what is reasonable”.

The hour-long visits mother Kim Nguyen and twin brother Khoa were restricted to after their arrival from Melbourne last week are being extended to three hour sessions twice a day starting on Tuesday.

Up to four people will be allowed at a time, and Nguyen will be granted a final meal of his choice.

Among those talking with him will be a Roman Catholic priest. Nguyen converted to the religion while in prison.

There will be no improvement in Nguyen’s accommodations. He has been staying in a 3 metre by 3-metre cell furnished with a mat, toilet hole and tap since he was convicted of trying to smuggle 400 grams of heroin from Cambodia to Melbourne in 2002.

Nabbed at Changi airport, he was caught with the drug strapped to his body and in his hand luggage.

Singapore, which has the highest execution rate in the world relative to population, according to Amnesty International, has a compulsory death penalty for murder and drug trafficking convictions. Anyone possessing more than 15 grams of heroin is presumed to be trafficking and faces death if found guilty.

Australia is a staunch opponent of the death penalty. Appeals from Prime Minister John Howard, two previous prime ministers, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, Pope John Paul II, his successor Pope Benedict XVI and a United Nations human rights expert were among the deluge turned down.

Singapore refused to compromise on what is says is an internal matter, making Nguyen the first Australian to be executed for drug charges in Southeast Asia since 1993.

“Genocide”

The meetings between Nguyen, his mother and brother have been described as particularly poignant. Nguyen maintained he was smuggling the heroin to pay off his brother’s debts to loan sharks.

Separated by glass, the family are unable to hug or even clutch hands. Planting kisses or hands on the barrier are the only recourse.

Lex Lasry, Nguyen’s counsel, said the former salesman was calm and composed after a visit, “preparing himself for the end of his life”.

Other lawyers said most of their clients adopted a sense of acceptance, particularly those with strong religious feelings.

Lasry has asked to be among the approximately seven people allowed to observe the hanging along with his legal colleague Julian McMahon ”for our client’s sake”.

Among Nguyen’s final visitors will be Darshan Singh, the 73-year-old hangman. Nguyen will be weighed and measured to calculate the length of the rope needed to break his neck after being dropped through the trapdoor of the gallows.

On Friday, he will be bathed, handcuffed and escorted to the gallows a short walk away. A hood will be placed over his head.

On hand will be the prison superintendent, a medical officer and a coroner.

Nguyen’s body will be turned over to his mother, but cremated if she fails to collect it by early afternoon.

The outcry over Nguyen’s death and mandatory sentences for trafficking has raised the ire of some Singaporeans, said M. Ravi, a human-rights lawyer who tried to save a drug courier in May. The effort failed and the Singaporean man’s 14-year-old twin sons are now orphans.

It is essential that the government start “complying with international norms as regards the issue of the mandatory death sentence,” Ravi said.

He has described the city-state’s policy as a form of “genocide”.