Singapore executes woman for first time in almost 20 years

Singapore hanged a woman accused of drug trafficking on Friday, the first such execution in the country in 19 years.

Saridewi Djamani, 45, was executed for trafficking nearly 31 grams (1.09 ounces) of diamorphine, or pure heroin, the country's Central Narcotics Bureau said.

She is the first woman executed in the Southeast Asian country since 2004.

This follows the execution on Wednesday of Mohd Aziz bin Hussain, a 56-year-old Singaporean, for trafficking 50g of heroin.

Singapore is one of four countries, along with China, Iran and Saudi Arabia, to carry out executions for drug trafficking.

Anyone found guilty of trafficking more than 500 grams of cannabis and 15 grams of heroin faces the death penalty. Djanami's execution brings to 15 the total number of executions for drug offenses since March 22 last year.

The narcotics bureau said the two prisoners hanged this week received due process, including appeals of their conviction and sentence and a request for presidential pardon.

Ms Djamani said she had been unable to give specific statements to police because she was suffering from drug withdrawal symptoms, but this was rejected by a judge.

According to Transformative Justice Collective (TJC) activists, Mr. Hussain had argued that his statements were inadmissible because the investigator had coerced him into making certain confessions and promised him a reduced non-capital charge. These assertions were disputed by the investigator.

More than two-thirds of the world's countries have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice, according to Amnesty International.

Malaysia, Singapore's close neighbor, has had an official moratorium on executions since 2018 and recently repealed the mandatory death penalty, particularly for drug offenses.

Chiara Sangiorgio, death penalty expert at Amnesty International, said: “It is unacceptable that the Singapore authorities continue to callously carry out new executions in the name of drug control. There is no evidence that the death penalty has a unique deterrent effect or that it has any impact on drug use and availability. While many countries around the world are abolishing the death penalty and enacting drug policy reform, Singapore authorities are doing neither.

“The only message sent by these executions is that the Singapore government is prepared to once again defy international guarantees regarding the use of the death penalty. »

The Singapore government says the policy helps deter drug use and organized crime.

The TJC said a new execution notice had been issued to another prisoner for August 3. He said the prisoner was a delivery driver who was convicted in 2019 of trafficking around 50 grams (1.75 ounces) of heroin. The group said the man claimed during his trial that he believed he was delivering contraband cigarettes to a friend he owed money and did not check the contents of the bag because he was trust his friend.

The last woman executed for drug trafficking in Singapore was Yen May Woen, a 36-year-old Chinese hairdresser.