The label by human rights watchdog Amnesty International does not sit well with the government.

Civil rights groups say the death penalty is an anachronism for a modern nation, but Singapore officials have been unswayed by appeals to stop the execution.

Nguyen, who is of Vietnamese origin, is scheduled to be hanged at Changi prison on December 2 after Singapore President Sellapan Ramanathan Nathan rejected appeals for clemency.

The baby-faced 25-year-old was caught at Changi Airport in 2002 while in transit between Australia and Cambodia with 400 grams (14 ounces) of heroin, a volume Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo said would have supplied more than 26,000 doses to drug addicts.

"There is no precedent that Singapore officials will change their mind at this stage," said Sinapan Samydorai, head of the Singapore civil rights group Think Centre, which is fighting an uphill battle to abolish capital punishment in the city-state.

"Frankly, I don't think Nguyen has a chance at this point."

Samydorai said a campaign led by Australian Prime Minister John Howard to save the life of Nguyen came too late and was not forceful enough because of strong trade and business ties between the two countries.

"I think the message here is that business interests can override the life of an individual. Nguyen will be sacrificed on the altar of trade and profit," Samydorai told AFP.

Singapore does not publish execution figures and maintains that the death penalty is a forceful deterrent to would-be criminals.

It also prides itself on the fairness of its justice system, which has ranked tops in several global surveys.

Amnesty International, in a report last year, said 408 prisoners had been sent to the gallows between 1991 and 2003 which it described as a "shocking number" for a country with a population of just over four million.

Singapore has "possibly the highest execution rate in the world relative to its population," Amnesty said, adding that those hanged included a "significant percentage" of foreigners.

Singapore's Home Affairs Ministry said in response to AFP queries earlier this year that eight Singaporeans and foreigners had been hanged in 2004 and 19 in 2003.

Amnesty, the London-based human rights watchdog, cited a UN report showing that from 1994 to 1999, Singapore had a rate of 13.57 executions per one million people -- the highest globally.

Saudi Arabia was in second place with a rate of 4.65 per million, followed by Belarus at 3.20, Sierra Leone at 2.84, Kyrgyzstan at 2.8, Jordan at 2.12 and China at 2.01.

The largest overall number of executions for the same period took place in China, followed by Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United States, Nigeria and Singapore, Amnesty said.

Of the 174 Singapore executions reported in the press between 1993 and 2003, 93 were foreigners, Amnesty said.

Many are believed to be migrant workers, including nationals from Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Ghana, the Netherlands, Britain and Portugal.

In 1995, Filipina domestic worker Flor Contemplacion was hanged for the murder of a fellow Filipina domestic worker and a Singaporean boy, sparking a storm of public outrage in the Philippines that nearly wrecked diplomatic ties.

With another Filipina maid, Guen Aguilar, facing a possible death sentence here for the killing in September of fellow domestic worker Jane La Puebla, diplomats from both sides have taken steps to prevent a political fallout.

Another execution in 1995, involving Macau-born Angel Mou Puipeng, "also caused diplomatic alarm," Amnesty said.

The 25-year-old Hong Kong resident was hanged after being granted a temporary reprieve to spend Christmas with her nine-year-old son.

Samydorai of Think Centre said Singapore is one of the very few developed countries which has kept the death penalty for non-violent crimes like drug trafficking.
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