Singapore's president has rejected an appeal by the teenage children of a 38-year-old man on death row, saying he would not receive clemency and underlining the country's tough stand on drugs trafficking.
   
Twins Gopalan and Krishnan Murugesu, on the advice of their father's lawyer, had handed out flyers in shopping districts seeking support for a petition against the execution, saying their father's death would make them orphans.
   
Shanmugam Murugesu was convicted of trafficking about 1 kg of cannabis after his arrest at Singapore's border with Malaysia in August 2003. He lost a high court appeal and his lawyer was seeking presidential clemency.
   
In a letter obtained by Reuters, Singapore's President S.R. Nathan said he had decided "after due consideration of the petitions and on the advice of the Cabinet...that the sentence of death should stand". The letter was dated April 22.
   
Singapore does not set dates for executions, although they are usually carried out on Fridays at dawn.
   
The case underlines Singapore's strict enforcement of some of the world's toughest drug laws. Anyone aged 18 or over convicted of carrying more than 500 grammes (17.6 ounces) of cannabis faces mandatory execution by hanging.
   
In a 2004 report, rights group Amnesty International said about 400 people have been hanged in Singapore since 1991, mostly for drug trafficking, giving the wealthy city-state of 4.2 million people possibly the highest execution rate in the world relative to its population.
   
Amnesty has said only six people sentenced to death in Singapore have been spared execution.
   
After exhausting all legal avenues, the family of Murugesu had made desperate pleas to the public to help save the man from being executed by the end of April.
   
This month, Shanmugam's mother broke down at a public forum organised by rights activists and wept openly as she appealed for public help to save her son.
   
Singapore has staunchly defended its use of the death penalty and maintained that capital punishment has deterred major drug syndicates from establishing themselves in Singapore.