Lex Lasry, QC, and Barrister Julian McMahon worked pro bono on behalf of convicted Australian drug smuggler Nguyen Tuong Van for two years, but the last month before Van’s hanging in Singapore was probably the toughest. They were shuttling between Singapore and Australia for last-ditch clemency appeal efforts. They lobbied their government and made passionate appeals to the Singaporean authorities to spare their client’s life only to see the young man, who by all accounts had transformed from a smart-alec kid to a loving mature man, hanged on December 2.
Perhaps more than intellectual and physical exhaustion, these two gentlemen of the Australian Bar underwent the kind of emotional fatigue that will take years to heal. Yet, they would go through it all over again, according to Mr. Lasry. That’s because it was not only their late client who had been transformed by this experience but also both Messrs. Lasry and McMahon.
The FAIRBANK REPORT is delighted to name Lex Lasry, QC and Barrister Julian McMahon our “Humanitarians of the Year for Calendar Year 2005.”
Jonathan Fairbank
Editor-in-Chief, The FAIRBANK REPORT
Los Angeles, CA
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