His lawyer, Lex Lasry, left Melbourne yesterday to attend the court hearing as an observer.

"(The) court did not permit me to appear in the case.

"I will just be observing," Mr Lasry said.

A local lawyer would represent Nguyen, 23, in the appeal.

Nguyen was sentenced to death by a Singapore court in March for drug trafficking. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has made a personal plea for clemency.

Today's appeal against his execution is not his last hope. If it fails, he can seek clemency from the Singapore Government.

Nguyen was caught during transit at Singapore's Changi airport in December 2002 when he was on his way from Cambodia to his home in Melbourne.

Singapore police testified that one packet of heroin was strapped to Nguyen's back and another was found in his hand luggage after he was stopped for a routine check.

The two packets of heroin weighed 396.2g.

Singapore made the death penalty mandatory for drug traffickers and murderers in 1975.

Anyone caught with more than 15g of heroin in Singapore is assumed to be importing or trafficking the drug.

All executions in the city-state are carried out by hanging. Singapore has proven repeatedly that foreigners are not exempt from its execution laws.

An Amnesty International report earlier in the year said Singapore had the highest per capita execution rate in the world, with more than 400 people hanged since 1991 in a nation of just over 4 million people.

Of the 174 executions reported in the press between 1993 and 2003, 93 were foreign nationals, according to the report.

Amnesty said many of those executed were migrant workers from Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Thailand, The Philippines, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and The Netherlands.

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