Singapore, on Friday, executed a 45-year-old woman, who had been convicted of smuggling drugs. This is the first woman the city-state executed in nearly 20 years, despite outcry from human rights groups. Saridewi Djamani was sentenced to death in 2018 for trafficking around 30 grams (1.06 ounces) of heroin.
The last time a woman was executed in Singapore was in 2004. Back then, a 36-year-old hairdresser Yen May Woen was hanged for drug trafficking. Rights groups have argued that executions don't necessarily prove to be a crime deterrent.
“The capital sentence of death imposed on Saridewi Binte Djamani was carried out on 28 July 2023,” the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) said in a statement, AFP reported.
The CNB said that Djamani “was accorded full due process under the law, and was represented by legal counsel throughout the process.” As per a report by the Guardian, Dajmani had pleaded that she was not in a position to give accurate statements to the police during her trial as she was suffering from drug withdrawal at the time.
The plea was rejected by a high court judge, who found Saridewi had “at most been suffering from mild to moderate methamphetamine withdrawal during the statement-taking period”, and that this had not impaired her ability to give statements. Djamani is the 15th prisoner to be executed since the government resumed executions in March 2022. Organisations like the Global Commission on Drug Policy, the International Federation for Human Rights and Amnesty International had urged the Singaporean government to halt the execution.
Djamani had appealed against her conviction and pleaded for clemency, both of which had been rejected. In Singapore, trafficking more than 500 grams of cannabis or over 15 grams of heroin can result in the death penalty. Singapore China, Iran and Saudi Arabia have been confirmed to have executed prisoners for drug-related offences in 2022, Amnesty said.
Campaigners say, under international standards, offenders should be sentenced to the death penalty only in the most serious crimes, such as intentional killing.
