- Singapore Executes Woman for Drug Trafficking in Decades
- Calls for End to Drug-Related Executions Grow Louder
- Critics Urge Singapore to Align with Global Trend Away from Death Penalty
Human rights organizations, international activists, and the United Nations have urged Singapore to cease drug-related executions, citing mounting evidence that they are ineffective as a deterrent.
In Singapore, a woman has been executed for the first offense in 19 years.
The Central Narcotics Bureau executed 45-year-old Saridewi Djamani in 2018 for trafficking 31 grammes (1.09 ounces) of heroin.
It was stated that the sum was “sufficient to feed the addiction of approximately 370 addicts for a week.”
Human rights organizations, international activists, and the United Nations have urged Singapore to cease drug-related executions, citing mounting evidence that they are ineffective as a deterrent.
However, its authorities insist that the death penalty is necessary to reduce drug demand and supply.
Trafficking 500 grammes (17.64 ounces) of cannabis or 15 grammes (0.53 ounces) of heroin gets Singaporeans executed.
Human rights groups report one drug-related execution every month since March 2022.
Two days before Djamani’s execution, a Singaporean man, 56-year-old Mohammed Aziz Hussain, was executed for trafficking approximately 50 grams (1.75 ounces) of heroin.
According to the narcotics bureau, both prisoners received due process, including appeals against their convictions and sentences and clemency petitions.
According to anti-death penalty activists, Yen May Woen, a 36-year-old beautician, was the last woman known to have been executed in Singapore, also for drug trafficking, in 2004.
Execution of the shipping driver
Transform Justice Collective, a Singaporean organization advocating for the abolition of the death penalty, reported that another prisoner had been issued an execution notice for August 3 – the fifth of this year.
Before his detention in 2016, the prisoner worked as a delivery driver, according to the report.
It was stated that he was condemned in 2019 for trafficking approximately 50 grams (1.75 ounces) of heroin.
The organisation stated the defendant testified that he was delivering illegal cigarettes to a friend who owed him money. He did not check the bag’s contents because he trusted his friend.
The man was sentenced to death notwithstanding the court’s judgement that he was a messenger.
The group “strongly condemns the state’s bloodlust” and called for an immediate halt on the death sentence.
Critics assert that the law punishes low-level traffickers and couriers.
Critics assert that Singapore’s harsh law only punishes low-level drug traffickers and couriers and that the country is out of sync with the global trend away from the death penalty.
This year, Thailand legalized cannabis and Malaysia abolished the mandatory death penalty for serious offences.
