Singapore to Execute First Woman In About 20 years

Two drug offenders in Singapore are scheduled to be executed this week, including the first woman to be hanged in almost 20 years, according to rights organizations, who also called for an end to the executions on Tuesday.

A 56-year-old man found guilty of trafficking 50 grams (1.76 ounces) of heroin is due to be hung on Wednesday at Changi Prison in the Southeast Asian city-state, according to local rights group Transformative Justice Collective.

On Friday, a 45-year-old female inmate who TJC named as Saridewi Djamani will also be hanged. In 2018, she received a death sentence for distributing about 30 grams of heroin.

According to TJC campaigner Kokila Annamalai, if the sentence is carried out, she will be the first woman to be killed in Singapore since Yen May Woen, a 36-year-old hairdresser, was hung for narcotics trafficking in 2004.

The two inmates, according to TJC, are Singaporeans, and their families have been notified of the dates of their executions.

Prison administrators were asked for confirmation through email by AFP, but they have not responded.

Singapore imposes the death penalty for certain crimes, including murder and some forms of kidnapping.

It also has some of the world’s toughest anti-drug laws: trafficking more than 500 grams of cannabis and 15 grams of heroin can result in the death penalty.

At least 13 people have been hanged so far since the government resumed executions following a two-year hiatus in place during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Rights watchdog Amnesty International on Tuesday urged Singapore to halt the impending executions.

‘It is unconscionable that authorities in Singapore continue to cruelly pursue more executions in the name of drug control,’ Amnesty’s death penalty expert Chiara Sangiorgio said in a statement.

‘There is no evidence that the death penalty has a unique deterrent effect or that it has any impact on the use and availability of drugs.

‘As countries around the world do away with the death penalty and embrace drug policy reform, Singapore’s authorities are doing neither,’ Sangiorgio added.

Singapore insists that the death penalty is an effective crime deterrent.