" Howard believes raising the case would be pointless. He says he has done all he can. But does he have anything to lose? A number of Commonwealth countries strongly oppose capital punishment, notably Canada and Britain.
Nguyen's barrister, Lex Lasry, QC, believes Britain should be particularly troubled by Singapore's intention to hang his client since it will do so under a mandatory sentencing policy. In 2002 Britain's Privy Council quashed a death sentence in Belize on the grounds that it was a mandatory sentence, depriving the defendant of his right to make a case for clemency in an open court.
Lasry says mandatory sentencing breaches the doctrine of separation of powers between government and the judiciary. He believes Singapore is one of the few countries to apply it to the death penalty. "
