Shanmugam Murugesu, 38, received a mandatory death sentence last year after he was caught returning by motorcycle from neighboring Malaysia in August 2003 with one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of marijuana.

"The family of Shanmugam Murugesu received a letter today (Monday) that he will be hanged" early Friday morning, the Think Center civil rights group said in a statement.

Murugesu's children, with the help of their lawyer, pleaded for clemency from the President. It was rejected earlier this month.

Opposition and civic groups had launched a last-minute campaign to save Murugesu. His twin 14-year-old sons, who will become orphaned if Murugesu dies, have been handing out fliers, asking Singaporeans to help save their father.

The Think Center was organizing a vigil for Murugesu on Thursday evening.

Last week, London-based rights group Amnesty International launched an urgent appeal on his behalf.

Amnesty International claims Singapore has the world's highest per capita rate of executions.

In its 2004 annual report, the group said executions in Singapore are "shrouded in secrecy." Singapore rejected the report, saying it was full of "misrepresentations and distortions."

Of 138 people hanged in Singapore in the five years ending January 2004, 110 were convicted of drug offenses, according to the country's Central Narcotics Bureau.

Six death row inmates have been granted clemency since Singapore's independence from Malaysia in 1965, the Straits Times newspaper said Monday. Under Singaporean law, anyone possessing more than 500 grams (17.64 ounces) of marijuana is presumed to be trafficking and faces death if found guilty.

Singapore's government - often accused by international critics of civil rights abuses and draconian punishments, such as lashing some criminals across the bare buttocks with a rattan cane - says its strict laws have helped make it one of Asia's safest, most stable and most prosperous countries.

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