Key PointsSaridewi Djamani was executed on Friday, after being sentenced to death in 2018 for trafficking 31 grams of heroin.Human rights groups have urged Singapore to halt executions for drug offences.Amnesty International say there were 883 known executions in 2022, across 20 countries.
Singapore has conducted its first execution of a woman in 19 years, and its second hanging this week for drug trafficking, despite calls for the city-state to cease capital punishment for drug-related crimes.
Saridewi Djamani, 45, was sentenced to death in 2018 for trafficking nearly 31 grams of diamorphine, or pure heroin, the Central Narcotics Bureau said.
Its statement said the amount was “sufficient to feed the addiction of about 370 abusers for a week”.
Singapore’s laws mandate the death penalty for anyone convicted of trafficking more than 500g of cannabis and 15g of heroin.
Djamani’s execution on Friday came two days after that of a Singaporean man, Mohammed Aziz Hussain, 56, for trafficking around 50g of heroin.
The narcotics bureau said both prisoners were accorded due process, including appeals of their conviction and sentence and petition for presidential clemency.
Human rights groups, international activists and the United Nations have urged Singapore to halt executions for drug offences and say there is increasing evidence it is ineffective as a deterrent.
Human rights organisations have said there is increasing evidence the death penalty is not an effective deterrent of crime. Source: AFP / Roslan Rahman
Human rights groups call for abolishment
A joint statement from human rights organisations – including Amnesty International, the Capital Punishment Justice Project and the Transformative Justice Collective – has called for an end to the practice.
Kristen Han, a member of the Transformative Justice Collective in Singapore, told there was no evidence the country’s “zero tolerance” position on drugs was working.
“We brought in the Misuse of Drugs Act in 1973 to specify harsh punishments for drug offences and then, in 1975 introduced the death penalty for drug offences,” Han said.
“So they claim that it works but they’ve never demonstrated anything that will show that not only is the death penalty effective but it has to be more effective than any other option.”
Singapore authorities insist capital punishment is important to halting drug demand and supply.
Human rights groups say it has executed 15 people for drug offences since it resumed hangings in March 2022, an average of one a month.
In April, after being convicted of conspiracy to smuggle 1kg of cannabis
The United Nations Human Rights Office had called on the country to “urgently reconsider” Suppiah’s execution, with British tycoon Richard Branson also urging for it to be halted.
Anti-death penalty activists said the last woman known to have been hanged in Singapore was 36-year-old hairdresser Yen May Woen, also for drug trafficking, in 2004.
Capital punishment on the rise
Amnesty International, in a report released earlier this year, said there had been 883 known executions in 2022, across 20 countries.
According to the report, that’s a 53 per cent increase from 2021, and is the highest figure since 2017.
