Singapore Hangs Dutch Traveler On Heroin Charge -- Westerner Is First To Die In Drug Case

SINGAPORE - Singapore today hanged a Dutch businessman who was caught carrying about 10 pounds of heroin in his suitcase, the Dutch Embassy said.

Johannes van Damme, 59, was the first Westerner to be executed by the island state for a narcotics crime. He was arrested in 1991 at Changi Airport in Singapore and had been on death row since last year.

In keeping with Singapore's tradition, van Damme was hanged before dawn at Changi prison.

"We had the confirmation that he had been executed at 6 a.m.," Dutch Embassy spokeswoman Djoeke Koekkoek said. She did not give details.

Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Hans van Mierlo said he was "disappointed and appalled" by the hanging.

President Ong Teng Cheong had rejected clemency pleas from the Dutch government and even a rare one from Dutch Queen Beatrix. Amnesty International, the London-based human-rights group, also pleaded for mercy.

Van Damme's lawyer, Edmund Periera, said yesterday his client was aware of his fate after the government turned down a last-minute clemency plea.

Van Damme, who had lived in Nigeria for 15 years before his arrest, had said he was innocent and claimed he did not know the packets containing 9.4 pounds of heroin were in the suitcase he was carrying for a Nigerian.

Thousands of Dutch citizens jammed fax lines to Singapore's presidential palace yesterday calling for him to be spared.

Singapore has executed 78 people for drug offenses, which were made punishable with a mandatory death sentence in 1975. Possession of as little as 15 grams, or a half-ounce, of heroin is considered a punishable offense.

Singapore's harsh penalties drew international attention in May when an American teenager, Michael Fay, was caned four times on the buttocks for vandalism. He also served four months in jail.