Singapore will hang two people convicted of drug trafficking this week, including a woman, lthe first to be executed in the country in almost 20 years, human rights groups reported on Tuesday.
The Singaporean organization Transformati ve Justice Collective (TJC) indicated that a 56-year-old man, convicted of trafficking 50 grams of heroin, will be hanged on Wednesday at Changi Prison. Two days later, a 45-year-old woman, identified by TJC as Saridewi Djamani, will be executed.
Saridewi Djamani was sentenced to death in 2018 for trafficking around 30 grams of heroin. If the sentence is carried out, will be the first woman to be executed in Singapore since 2004, when hairdresser Yen May Woen, 36, was hanged, also for drug trafficking, said TJC activist Kokila Annamalai.
According to TJC, the two convicted men are Singaporeans and their families were informed of the date of the execution. The AFP agency contacted the prison service by email to confirm the information, but received no response.
Capital punishment is applied in Singapore for some crimes such as murder and some forms of kidnapping. The country has one of the strictest anti-drug laws in the world.: trafficking more than 500 grams of cannabis and more than 15 grams of heroin can carry the death penalty.
At least 13 people have been hanged in Singapore since two years ago, when the government resumed executions after a pause due to the covid-19 pandemic. The NGO Amnesty International urged the authorities on Tuesday to abandon this policy.
“It is inconceivable that the Singaporean authorities continue cruelly with these executions in the name of controlling drug trafficking,” said Chiara Sangiorgio, Amnesty International’s expert on death penalty, in a statement. “While countries around the world are abolishing the death penalty and supporting drug policy reforms, the Singapore authorities are doing nothing,” she added.
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