Singapore hangs woman for drug trafficking in first execution of nearly 20 years
Representational image of a prison.
Singapore on Friday (July 28) executed a 45-year-old citizen for drug trafficking, in the first execution of a woman in the city-state in nearly 20 years.
"The capital sentence of death imposed on Saridewi Binte Djamani was carried out on 28 July 2023," said the Central Narcotics Bureau.
The woman was convicted of trafficking "not less than 30.72 grams" of heroin, which is more than twice the volume that paves the way for the death penalty in Singapore.
Djamani, who was sentenced by the court in 2018, "was accorded full due process under the law, and was represented by legal counsel throughout the process," said the bureau in a statement.
"She appealed against her conviction and sentence, and the Court of Appeal dismissed her appeal on 6 October 2022," the bureau stated, adding that the court also rejected her plea for presidential clemency.
Djamani was the first woman who has faced execution in the city-state since 2004, said the bureau.
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She is the 15th prisoner who has been hanged since executions were resumed by the government in March 2022 after putting a two-year pause to it during the Covid pandemic.
Earlier, a 57-year-old local man, Mohd Aziz bin Hussain, was hanged after getting convicted for trafficking about 50 grams of heroin.
Some of the world's toughest anti-drug laws have been in place in Singapore where a person caught trafficking more than 500 grams of cannabis or over 15 grams of heroin can face the death penalty.
“Capital punishment is used only for the most serious crimes, such as the trafficking of significant quantities of drugs which cause very serious harm, not just to individual drug abusers, but also to their families and the wider society,” the CNB stated.
Hanging triggers outrage among rights groups
The hanging of Djamani has triggered renewed outrage among rights groups. “The government of Singapore violates human belief in redemption and the capacity for rehabilitation by insisting instead on taking a drastic and irreversible action,” stated Celia Ouellette, founder of the non-profit group Responsible Business Initiative for Justice.
“Singapore risks not only its international reputation but its financial future as well. It’s time for it to abolish capital punishment once and for all," she added.
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Secretary General of France-based NGO International Federation for Human Rights Adilur Rahman Khan called Djamani’s execution a “grim milestone” and appealed to the Singaporean government to stop executions.
Amnesty International’s death penalty expert Chiara Sangiorgio said that the woman's execution “defied international safeguards on the use of the death penalty.”
“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,” she added in a statement.
(With inputs from agencies)
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