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Law and JusticeSingapore

Singapore executes woman for first time in almost 20 years

July 28, 2023

Despite opposition from rights groups, Singapore is among four countries that have recently executed defendants for drug related charges. Another execution is already scheduled for next week.

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Prison with bars and open cell door in Singapore
Singapore continues to uphold the death penalty despite protestsImage: Pond5/IMAGO

Singapore on Friday executed a woman for the first time in almost two decades, officials said.

Saridewi Djamani, 45, was found guilty of possessing over 30 grams of heroin, which is more than twice the volume that merits the death penalty in Singapore.

The execution took place despite appeals from right groups who argue that the death penalty is not a deterrent to crime.

Djamani's mercy petition was dismissed

Djamani was sentenced to capital punishment in July 2018.

Singapore's Central Narcotics Bureau said she had been "accorded full due process under the law."

Her appeal against execution was dismissed by the Court of Appeal in October 2022. Her presidential clemency was also rejected, the bureau said.

Singapore resumes executions after hiatus

In 2004, Yen May Woen was hanged for drug trafficking. Since then, Djamani is the first woman to be executed, the Singapore Prison Service was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

Djamani became the 15 prisoner who was sent to the gallows since the government resumed capital punishment in March 2022 after a two-year pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Anti-death penalty activists hold posters to protest the execution of a Malaysian convicted for drug trafficking in 2022
Activists protest the continued death penalty given to convicts.Image: Vincent Thian/AP Photo/picture alliance

Kristen Han, a Singaporean rights activist, said that this is the fourth execution this year and that there seems to be "no sign of the government wanting to give an inch."

On Wednesday, the country hanged 57-year-old Mohammad Aziz Bin Hussain for trafficking 50 grams of heroin.

Another drug convict is scheduled to be executed on August 3, said the local rights group Transformative Justice Collective.

Singapore upholds death penalty despite pushback

Singapore has one of the most stringent anti-drug laws in the world. Trafficking more than 500 grams of cannabis or over 15 grams of heroin could result in the death penalty.

"As most of the world turns its back on this cruel punishment, Singapore's government continues down the path of executing people for drug-related crimes, violating international human rights law and standards," said Amnesty International's death penalty expert Chiara Sangiorgio.

Despite what rights groups say, Singapore insists that the death penalty has helped make it one of Asia's safest countries.

According to Amnesty, Singapore, China, Iran and Saudi Arabia have executed prisoners for drug-related offenses in the last year.

ns/fb (AFP, EFE, dpa)